Orphan of Fenrir
by BBSA
Summary: A lonely adolescent with a fierce anger, Fred hoped to relax by taking a trip to a summer camp up in the mountains. However, his trip takes a dark turn after encountering a strange beast in the woods. Now troubled by visions of a gray wolf, Fred begins to understand that he may never have been just a kid at all. In fact, he may need to grow up now if he wants to survive.
1. Chapter 1

For the first time in years, Fred didn't feel any anger. He just felt the breeze.

Standing atop a rocky cliffside, all Fred could see was the vast wilderness sprawled before him. As a boy who had grown up in the city, everything here seemed new and exciting to him. The tall evergreen trees with their prickly needles, the massive birds-of-prey swooping across the horizon, and the clear blue sky with almost no cloud in sight.

Almost, save for the plume of smoke far far off in the distance. The school bus that took him out here traveled fairly close to the source of the smoke cloud; an oil refinery, belonging to some company named Endron. Fred remembered the reactions of the other kids on the bus, staring in amazement at the towering pile of rusty pipes and open flames.

To a city slicker like Fred, the refinery didn't seem special at all. Just more of the same… more of what he wanted to get away from.

"Pfft." Fred scoffed, turning away from the cliffside. "Dumb kids."

Fred himself was really not much older than any of his peers, but it felt easy for him to label them as 'dumb kids'. It was always easy for him to stand apart from the other kids, whether at school or even all the way out here. Some people, teachers mostly, tried to tell him he had a bad temper but he never seemed able to get over it.

"Ugh, lame." Fred mumbled, shaking his head as he walked back into the woods. "So lame…"

In an attempt to push some unpleasant memories out of his mind, Fred reached into his black hooded sweatshirt's pocket for his CD player. Placing a pair of headphones over his ears, he began to play some very loud and aggressive music. Losing himself, as he often did, in his song led Fred astray through the wilderness. It wasn't until his boots splashed into come clear water the he broke out of his daydreams.

"A river?" Fred muttered.

Taking off his headphones, Fred gazed across the open waters From where he stood was shallow and fairly calm, but looking out he could see that the current grew much fiercer and the water much deeper. Staring down by his feet, Fred could see fairly clearly his own reflection. He was still a young boy, although he refused to admit it, and was on the cusp of entering high school. Fred was dressed plainly in a black hoody and a pair of baggy blue jeans, all the better to avoid attention. However, his shaggy blonde hair and cold blue eyes often stood out from the crowd.

"Heh, the water's so clear." Fred said with a rare smile. "I should've brought my swimming trunks."

Fred stared down at his reflection as he continued to walk through the shallow side of the river. The new boots his grandmother had bought him were thankfully water proof, and kept him dry as he trod along.

A few moments later, he wished he had worn running shoes.

"Huh?"

Having heard a low, guttural grunt, Fred looked up from his reflection and saw what looked to be a dark brown beast wading through the water on all fours. Whereas but a moment ago Fred had been freely inhaling the crisp mountain air, now he didn't dare breathe.

"A bear?

The hulking mass of fur stood with its back turned to Fred, splashing its sharp claws against the water with each step it took. The bear slowly lowered its head to the water and opened its maw, revealing a row of sharp teeth. Dunking down with another splash, the bear quickly re-emerged with a salmon in its mouth.

"Woah, it caught it."

Fred felt he should've been putting some serious distance between himself and the bear, but at the same time he had never seen anything like this. His curiosity got the best of him as he watched the bear chomp apart the fish with its sharp canines.

"Brutal." Fred chuckled. "Look at it go."

The mangled fish, or what was left of it, flopped freely out of the bear's paw as the beast reared its head. The bear's brown eyes stared unblinkingly at Fred, who reflexively staggered back from it.

"Uh oh." Fred whispered, raising his hands up as he took another step back. "Crap crap crap."

As the bear completely turned toward him, blood splattered across its furry face, Fred watched in horror as the bear began to stomp closer.

"CRAP!" was the only response Fred could muster as he turned and ran!

Back through the underbrush from whence he came, Fred sprinted as fast as he could through the prickly trees. Daring to steal a look behind him as he ran, Fred caught sight of the bear giving chase. Its grunting echoed through the trees as water and blood dripped down its face.

"Just my luck!" Fred wheezed. "Gotta get back to— GAH!"

Fred's feet skid to a halt as he found himself at the precipice of the cliffside he had found but a short while ago. Waving his arms through the air, he just barely regained his balance before tumbling off of the edge. Narrowly avoiding a painful drop, Fred then turned about to face an even more terrifying threat.

The bear's massive head peeked out from the trees, its brown eyes locking with Fred's blue orbs.

"God no." Fred huffed, glancing back at the cliffside again before looking back at the bear. "I'm so screwed… eh?"

Between his rising panic and his desperate attempts to catch his breath, Fred noticed something quite peculiar; the bear had stopped chasing him. While it had more-or-less trapped Fred against the cliff, the bear had decided not to come any closer. For whatever reason, the animal seemed content to hang back and watch him.

"The Hell?" Fred grumbled, wiping a bead of sweat off of his forehead. "You chase me all the way back here, for what?!"

The bear emerged completely from the trees and then sat its big rear down on the ground, causing Fred to shake his head.

"Is this normal?" Fred muttered, burying his face into his hands. "This thing is acting like a big dog."

The bear huffed at Fred, who tensed up and stared as the shaggy brown behemoth sniffed the air. After a few sniffs, the bear then, to Fred's astonishment, raised one of its claws and waved at him.

"Uh, hi…"

Fred slowy raised his own hand and waved back at the bear.

"… unreal. Where did this thing come from?"

Fred's eyes widened as the bear opened its maw and released a bellowing yawn.

"Heh, I guess you're friendly. How you doing bear?" Fred said, smiling at the madness of it all. "My name's Fred. Glad you're not going to eat me."

The bear opened its mouth, and despite the sharpness of its teeth and the blood all over its mouth, Fred could swear it was smiling.

"So uh, you mind if I come a little closer? Before I—"

An ear-splitting boom pierced the silent air, cutting Fred off mid-speech!

"THE HELL?!"

Stumbling about for balance, Fred suddenly found his foot slipping as the stone beneath his feet crumbled away. A feeling of weightlessness took over him as the world tumbled about before his eyes. Speechless at his fate, Fred found his voice once more as his shoulder connected with the hard ground.

"ACK!"

Crashing against the grass and dirt, Fred's body slipped further and further down the cliffside before his vision went totally dark. Even so, as all his senses left him, Fred swore he could hear what sounded like that big goofy bear roaring at him…

"Just… my… luck…"

Fred shivered, his numb body stirring as his hands grabbed fistfuls of grass and dirt. This was just about to be a camping trip, a chance to get out of the house and maybe even make a friend. Instead, he feared he was going to die out here all alone. He thought of his grandmother for a moment, pretty much the only family he had, and he remembered just how much he had to beg her just to sign her up for this camp.

Just imagining how she would react if she found out what happened to you, all because you wanted to go on a little hike by yourself…

"Damnit… damnit. Damnit!"

Fred was on the verge of screaming out his frustration, wailing out his indignation for all the world to hear!

Except, something cut him off.

"GRRRRRR."

Fred's eyes wrenched open and he was not where he thought he should be. The world seemed dark where but a moment before the sun was still shining. Aside from the grass he lied upon, he could barely see more than a few feet in front of him. Surrounded by pitch black darkness, Fred struggled to rise up to his feet and find the source of that vicious growl.

"No more bears, no more—"

Fred lifted his head and found himself face to face with a wolf. Erect on all fours, its gray hairs standing on end, a wolf larger than any dog Fred had ever seen was right in his face. Snarling, the shaggy beast continued to growl.

"…."

Working his way up to his knees, his gaze never leaving the wolf's golden eyes. It all seemed so surreal, but unlike the bear who revealed itself as being friendly, this terrible thing of pure rage did not frighten Fred.

"I know you." Fred whispered, raising a hand out to the gray wolf. "Heh, you remind me of… of Grandma."

Reaching over to the vicious beast, Fred's fingertips reach out and touch the neck of the monstrous wolf.

"ACK!" Fred cried out!

Struck as if by a bolt of lightning, Fred collapsed onto the dirt and shook with pain! The very hand that he had touched the wolf with could not be felt anymore, and his body seemed drenched in sweat!

"AAAAAAAAH!" Fred howled. "Make. It. STOP!"

And seemingly in a flash, the pain disappeared. Closing his eyes, Fred slowly regained his breath until he could hear the chirping of birds up above. On his exposed face, Fred could also feel the warmth of the sun.

"Hey, aren't you gonna wake up now?!"

Fred's opened his eyes again and found someone standing directly over him. It was difficult to make her out, as the sun was shining right behind her.

"Ha! You look like you took quite a spill! Nice one kid."

Furrowing his brow, Fred pushed himself up onto his elbows and stared incredulously up at wide grin of this mysterious stranger.

"I'm not a kid. And who are you?" Fred grunted.

The stranger continued to chuckle a bit, standing tall as she planted her hands on her hips.

"How does Rebecca sound?" she answered.

"How does.. your name sound?" Fred muttered.

Rebecca, if that was indeed her name, snickered down at Fred who took a moment to look her over. She was a fair bit taller than Fred, and apparently quite a bit older. Long and curly dark brown hair seemed to stretch down almost to her thighs, giving her something of a wild look as if she was some kind of savage living out here in the woods. Knee and elbow pads as well as a pair of fingerless gloves made her stand out, and as Fred wondered why she had chosen to wear such things he also took notice of her toned muscles. Much of these muscles were on display, as she only wore cargo shorts and a tight crop top t-shirt that said—

"Camp counselor?"

Fred squinted at the t-shirt, seeing the bright white letters printed on the front of Rebecca's black t-shirt.

"Yup!" Rebecca said with a nod. "And I'm guessing you're new here?"

Staring up at Rebeca, Fred continued to squint at Rebecca's bright smile while nodding at her.

"Awesome! You're gonna love it here." Rebecca chuckled while offering Fred a hand. "Hey, as camp counselor I should probably tell ya— campers aren't supposed to be this far out in the woods by themselves. We don't want kids falling off of cliffs to a daily thing ya know?"

Fred accepted Rebecca's hand while clambering to his feet, although he did not smile or laugh along with her one bit. Flexing his own arms and legs, Fred made quite a discovery.

"I'm… I'm alright."

"Pretty lucky huh?"

Turning to face Rebecca, Fred stared at her as she smiled back without another word.

"How the Hell," Fred muttered. "d-did you see me… did you see a bear, and a wolf?"

"There are lots of both of those all over these parts! Rebecca replied. "That's why its never safe to go alone. Tell ya what, next time you want to go sightseeing just let me know. I'm always up for a hike!"

Rebecca closed her eyes and beamed down at Fred, patting the boy on the shoulder and wiping some of the dirt and grass off of his sweatshirt.

"That wasn't what I, gah." Fred hung his head and sighed, letting the older girl dust him off. "Well, you had to have heard that! It sounded like an explosion!"

Rebecca's hand suddenly gripped Fred's shoulder, catching the boy by surprise. The counselor's smile had finally vanished as she turned her head and scowled.

"Yeah, sounded like it came from… Endron." Rebecca grumbled.

"Endron?" Fred repeated.

"Er, oil company. They run the refinery about 50 miles down the road…" Rebecca muttered back with a shake of her head.

Fred's eyes widened. It had to have been the oil refinery his bus drove past earlier today. What could have happened he wondered?

"I should go and— I should get you back to camp." Rebecca chirped.

Her hand flew off of Fred's shoulder and onto his back as Rebecca began to lead him away down the mountain.

"C'mon Fred, we got all month to go hiking! Hey, do you like swimming? And fishing? Or maybe rock climbing's more your speed? There's all kinds of cool stuff you can sign up for ya know? I bet if you asked around a bit you'd find—"

Fred frowned, his internal thoughts phasing out Rebecca's words. There was so much that happened in so little time that left Fred with all kinds of questions. In fact, one such question was weighing quite heavily on Fred's mind right now.

How did Rebecca know his name was Fred?


	2. Chapter 2

Chatter and laughter filled the camp's mess hall the next morning as young campers discussed how they would spend their first full day up in the forested mountains. Most of them seemed rejuvenated from a good night's rest after such a long bus ride up to the campsite, but Fred couldn't say the same. After what happened to him the day before, Fred couldn't close his eyes for long without seeing a faint image of that snarling grey beast.

The wolf prowled around in Fred's head, and a low growl emanating from its maw whenever Fred began to daydream. While Fred was sitting by himself at a wooden table with a bowl of half-eaten cereal, his thoughts still placed him back in that strange patch of grass with that monstrous wolf staring down at him.

"We gotta do archery first man!"

A different boy's voice tore Fred's attention to the here and now, turning about in his seat to look upon his fellow campers.

"Dude, we got all month to try archery. We should sign up for swimming today, its too hot for anything else."

Fred stared at them as they debated in front of a big wooden board where several different fliers had been stapled. From what Fred was able to gather, campers here were able to select what activities they could spend time on at the beginning of the day. Squinting at the board, it looked to Fred as if most of the campers had already signed their names down.

"I don't think its going to get any cooler this month. Hey! We could sign up for a hike up the mountains, it should be much cooler up there."

Curious to see what it was he could do today, and hopeful that he could get his mind off of yesterday, Fred stood up from his seat and approached the board. Fred also found himself listening in on the two boys, a part of him wondering if he might ask to join them. They looked like they might even have been from his cabin.

"Mountain hike? That sounds neat, let me see. Oh, oh Hell no."

"Eh, what's wrong?"

Fred couldn't help but notice the boy who swore, shaking his head while taking a step back from the board.

"Bro, you see who's running the mountain hike today?"

The other boy's mouth dropped as he too stepped back from the board.

"No way, that psycho is back again?!"

Furrowing his brow, Fred stepped up behind the two boys and asked-

"Who are you two talking about?"

The boys staggered forward, one of them gasping while the other grit his teeth. Fred himself recoiled as well, the two strangers looking as if they were about to bolt and run away from him.

"h-Hey, I'm sorry I—"

"Why were you sneaking up on us?" one of the boys cut him off.

"Yeah! What's your problem!?" the other boy shouted.

Fred stared at the two of them in shock, words failing him for a moment. Slowly, Fred cleared his throat and raised a finger to the board.

"What's uh, y-you two were kind of loud. I could hear you from across the room."

A feeling of dread began to slip into Fred, a chill down his spine that was all too familiar. One of the boys looked paler than he did a moment ago, the other's fists were shaking. Fear and anger, it was usually the former but every now and then Fred rubbed someone just the wrong way to bring out the latter.

Unfortunately for Fred, anger always seemed contagious to him.

"You know what," Fred growled. "forget I said anything. Just back off!"

The boy who had been shaking suddenly raised his fists in response to Fred's shout. He could already see it coming, yet Fred did nothing to defend himself from the coming blow. Fred figured if he could let the other boy get in one good punch first, then maybe he wouldn't get in trouble for fighting back. It didn't exactly work out before, but Fred thought maybe the third time's the charm.

"Dude stop, its not worth it." the scared boy protested, grabbing his friend's shoulder. "Let's just go."

"Ugh, fine." the angry boy sighed. "I don't know what your deal is new kid, but don't think you can screw with us!"

"Whatever!" Fred sneered. "See ya around."

Fred stared unblinkingly at the two boys as they slowly wandered off out of the hall. He couldn't help but feel the eyes of several other campers seated in the mess hall digging into his backside like the arrows painted on the archery flier, but he didn't care to look back and see. Instead, he turned his attention to the board.

"Mountain hiking." Fred muttered. "Hmph, should've known."

The mountain hiking sign-up sheet stood out from all the others. Most of them looked like they were printed out nice and neat, but the hiking form was seemingly written out entirely in crayola. A big picture took up nearly half the page, that of a snow-capped mountain under a smiling-faced sun who wore a pair of sunglasses. It looked like something a kindergartner had made, but Fred could only assume that this was the product of the camp counselor whose name was listed on it.

"Rebecca's in charge." Fred grunted. "Pyscho huh?"

Staring at the sheet for a while, Fred thought back to how he met the strange girl. Everything from her outlandish appearance to her big goofy smile stuck out in his mind, and Fred never could figure out how she knew his name to begin with.

"Doesn't look like anyone else signed up." Fred mumbled. "Weird."

Shaking his head, Fred made up his mind and reached for one of the markers hanging from the board.

"Well she's weird, but at least she's friendly." Fred said with a small smile. "Beats hanging out around camp all day."

His decision made, Fred went back to his table and finished his modest breakfast in silence. After putting his dishes away, Fred stepped outside into the sunny campgrounds. From what he recalled, the flier said to meet up over by a campfire pit a short walk away from the mess hall.

"They weren't kidding when they said it was hot." Fred grumbled.

The boy squinted up at a bright morning sun before looking away and throwing his sweatshirt's hood up over his head. Reaching into his sweatshirt pocket, he once again brandished his headphones and began to listen to his music. He would often retreat into his CD player and mentally escape from the rest of the world, but today he was still getting used to all the new sights that surrounded him.

Thus Fred still had some of his wits about him when he spotted the camp counsellor, sitting high up above in a tree overlooking a pile of fire logs.

"Woah," Fred whispered. "how'd she get up there?"

Fred took off his headphones and stared up at a thick branch that had to have been about twenty feet up in the air. Resting with her back against the tree trunk and her legs dangling on either side of the branch, Rebecca was seemingly taking a nap.

"h-Hey! Hey Rebecca!"

Shouting upwards, Fred suddenly caught the camp counsellor's attention. Jerking forward, Rebecca groggily turned her gaze downwards to Fred.

"Good morning." Rebecca yawned. "Oh, its you! Freddy."

"Uh, hey." Fred replied, shifting his hands into his pockets. "Good morning. What are you doing up there?"

"Just chilling!" Rebecca chirped. "And enjoying the view. I can see almost the whole camp from up here!"

Fred shuffled his feet, his gaze drifting up to Rebecca and back down to the ground.

"Isn't that like, kind of dangerous?" Fred mumbled.

"Is it?" Rebecca chuckled.

A few leaves began to fall around Fred, who looked back up to find Rebecca clambering her arms and legs around the tree trunk. With bated breath, Fred watched as Rebecca began to slowly climb down the massive tree. Much to his surprise, Rebecca quickly cleared the last five feet to the ground by simply hopping and landing on her boots.

"So what's up Freddy?" Rebecca asked with a smile.

"I er, came by for the hike." Fred said, shrugging off the acrobatics.

"The hike?" Rebecca replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the hike. You know, the one you're in charge of?" Fred muttered back.

Rebecca blinked at Fred for a moment as the young boy began to wonder if there was some kind of joke he wasn't getting. Soon enough, Rebecca's blank stare was eclipsed by a bright smile.

"Taking me up on my offer huh?" Rebecca snickered.

"Well, I saw the flier in the mess hall. I guess you did kind of offer yesterday but—"

"Awesome!" Rebecca cut in.

The older girl slapped Fred on the back, the boy caught off-guard as he staggered a step froward.

"You're the first camper to actually sign up for my hikes in a while!"

Fred frowned at Rebecca as she began to walk away from the fire pit area and over toward some forestry.

"Why am I the only camper who signed up?"

Rebecca snorted, shaking her head as she led the way.

"MY camp activities aren't usually for beginners, and some campers just can't keep up. I'll tell ya what though Fred, if you keep up with me and make it far enough up the mountain... I might show ya a secret."

Fred continued to frown as he absorbed all this information. He never got the impression that camp activities had some kind of entry level to them, which puzzled Fred.

"A secret eh? What kind of secret?"

"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a secret now would it?"

Rebecca chuckled as the two of them entered into the forest proper, the sound of a woodpecker knocking against a tree and a bee buzzing by stealing some of Fred's attention away.

"Beautiful place isn't it?" Rebecca asked.

"Uh, yeah. It really is…" Fred muttered.

There was still something really odd about Rebecca, something Fred couldn't quite pin down. There weren't many girls Fred knew well, most of them giving the young boy some distance on account of his reputation at school. Yet Rebecca didn't seem the least bit intimidated or offended by Fred, which felt refreshing if nothing else.

"Alright, I'm down." Fred nodded. "Lead the way."

Grinning in reply, Rebecca took off at a brisk walk through the forest down a narrow grassy trail. Fred kept up with little difficulty, although it was understandably hot for this time of year. Sweat dripped down his forehead from the heat, yet thankfully the trees provided quite a bit of shade from the sun.

"You feel ok?" Rebecca asked, as the two walked further.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine." Fred quickly replied.

"You look like you're kind of hot. Are you gonna wear that sweatshirt the whole way up?" Rebecca said while eyeing Fred up and down.

"Well… yeah. I'm fine really. Besides, I kind of burn easy in the sun so I prefer dressing like this." Fred muttered, pulling his hood a little further over his face.

"I have some sunscreen if you want some." Rebecca chirped, reaching into one of the pockets in her cargo pants.

"Oh no, thanks though." Fred said with a wave of his hand.

"Heh, suit yourself! Let me know if you change your mind. I got some bug spray too if you want some of that. And water." Rebecca replied, turning her attention back to the path.

Fred smiled as the two of them fell silent. It really did make him feel relaxed to be out and about in the wilderness. It was so strangely quiet compared to the long lonely walks he'd take back in the city, and regardless of how strange Rebecca seemed she was still pleasant company. Indeed, everything seemed so serene and Rebecca seemed so nice that Fred eventually began to wonder just what it was about her that scared the other campers away. Was it perhaps that Rebecca had something about her, some… otherness that pushed people away, just like with himself? This hiking activity didn't seem so challenging, so perhaps-

"THIS is where things get interesting!" Rebecca exclaimed.

Fred, previously lost in his thoughts, walked right into Rebecca and nearly lost his footing. Looking up and around the taller girl, Fred's eyes began to widen while he took in a familiar sight.

"t-This is," Fred stammered. "the cliff!"

"No, not THE cliff." Rebeca corrected, raising a finger. "There are a bunch of cliffs around this mountain, this is just one of the smaller ones."

"Smaller ones?!" Fred repeated. "Are you kidding me? Isn't this.. this is the one I fell of of yesterday!"

Rebecca grinned, flashing her teeth while nodding at Fred. Now at a loss for words, Fred took a few steps past the camp counselor while staring at the rocky cliffside. Cracks and fissures in the moss-laden rock hinted at the immense age and overwhelming presence this mountain exuded at Fred who could do little more than gaze up at it. It was a mystery to the boy as to how he could've walked away from such a fall, let alone survive.

"OK Fred, follow my lead. This should only take about ten, maybe fifteen minutes." Rebecca said while placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hang on, how are we supposed to get around this?" Fred asked, looking up into Rebecca's smile.

"We don't get 'around' it. We go UP it." Rebecca exclaimed.

Fred recoiled from Rebecca's grin, jerking his gaze back to the cliffside and then back to her.

"r-Rebecca, i've never done anything like this before." Fred mumbled. "t-There's no way I can do this."

Rebecca's smile disappeared as she too looked up to the cliff and then back down to Fred.

"Are you afraid?" Rebecca asked. "After what happened yesterday?"

"What? No! I'm not afraid." Fred shot back with a frown. "Its just that…"

"Heh! Hey, there's no need to be scared." Rebecca said, patting Fred on the shoulder. "I've done this climb lots of times before, I know you can handle it. And I'll be with you every step of the way."

Fred fell quiet, unsure if he could really trust possibly crazy girl or not.

"Look, I REALLY don't want to take another fall…"

"Why not? You seemed like you took the last fall pretty well."

Fred stared up at Rebecca, a big smirk on her face.

"Yeah, I did." Fred whispered.

"Well I've fallen off this cliff lots of times too! That's how I figured out the best ways of climbing it." Rebecca boasted.

The camp counselor raised her finger up at the top of the cliff.

"Trial," she exclaimed. "and a lot of error!"

She slapped her pointed finger down into her open palm with a fierce chuckle. Fred stared at Rebecca with a dour look, wondering if Rebecca was speaking the truth. He was starting to think she was, yet that still didn't necessarily ease his nerves.

"But hey, I can understand if this is too much for ya." Rebecca replied, turning her back on Fred. "No camper has ever really finished a hike with me. I can take you back down to the campsite and you can just relax with all the other kids."

Rebecca's last spoken word, 'kids', seemed to echo around in his head. Up here in the mountain, Fred felt more at peace than anywhere else... and strong. For him, the choice between possibly falling off a cliff and being stuck alone in camp all day wasn't a hard decision at all.

"I'm not just some kid." Fred grunted. "C'mon, let's climb."

"That's the spirit!" Rebecca cheered. "Let's rock!"

Invigorated with a bit of his latent anger, Fred stomped forward after Rebecca. The two of them reached the cliffside, the older girl tracing her fingerless-gloved hand across the stone. Fred shot a dirty look up at the rocky expanse, the foreboding precipice looking a little shorter now to him.

"Don't look down." Rebecca whispered.

The camp counselor gripped onto a jagged piece of stone and while lifting one knee up she took her first few steps through the cliff. Fred stopped a moment, staring intently at Rebecca while she made her ascent. A small voice in the back of his head might've been trying to tell him that this was all foolish, but Fred had already made up his mind. The young boy raised up his own soft hand, the feeling the smoothness of the stone as he mimicked Rebecca in her movements. Sweat began to drip down his face, his heart beating wildly in his chest as his unimpressive muscles strained themselves. This was unlike anything Fred had ever done before, had ever dared to attempt before, and while his body felt like it was struggling in his mind Fred felt like there was presently nothing to fear. Something, like Instinct, had taken over. His thoughts had settled on scaling this cliff, and nothing else could be heard within him… save perhaps, some low grumble… like an animal.

"Unreal. I'm doing it." Fred stopped and chuckled. "Heh, I can't— GAH!"

A hand of Fred's had pulled a small bit of the rock loose, sending it clattering down the cliffside. Fred's eyes widened as he unwittingly traced the fall of said rock, gazing in shock at just how high he had risen.

"o-Oh crap. Fred gasped. "AH CR—"

Fred stared up at the blue sky as he lost the rest of his grip and fell back. Once more, a feeling of weightlessness came over him— yet this time it lasted only the briefest of moments.

"GOT YOU!" Rebecca growled, her hand suddenly gripping onto Fred's wrist. "Ahhhh…"

Fred stared up wordlessly at Rebecca as her dark brown eyes stared down at him. There was a fierce look in her eyes as she dangled from the top of the cliff, a single arm of hers latched onto him. It would seem she had caught him in the nick of time, and that he had almost completely scaled the cliff himself. Fred soon regained his senses, kicking against the cliffside and reaching up to the edge to pull himself upwards with Rebecca's aid. Only a few seconds later, Fred slid up atop the cliff and laid across the ground beside Rebecca.

"Damn." Fred huffed. "t-Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Rebecca sighed. "Seriously, please don't mention it. Especially not to the other counselors."

Raising the back of his hand to his forehead, Fred wiped some sweat off of his brow while staring up at a cloudless sky and a bright hot sun. As far as he knew, he had just narrowly evaded death twice in two days.

"Hey, here." Rebecca grunted, reaching into her cargo pants pocket. "Before I forget."

Rising up to her knees, Rebecca tossed something small and colorful at Fred. Lifting his head, Fred looked down at what Rebecca had tossed onto his chest; a small patch depicting a mountain so high that clouds encircled its peak, Fred's first merit badge.

"I did it." Fred exclaimed. "I did it! w-Well, I did most of it."

Rebecca stood tall, her head blocking the bright light of the sun as she stood over Fred.

"I knew you could." Rebecca chuckled. "Not bad kid."

Fred smirked back at her while slowly lifting his hooded head off the dirt.

"I told ya, I'm not a kid."

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders and turned her back on him.

"Alright, I can tell 'kid' doesn't suit you well. I'll just call ya Freddy for now one. C'mon Fred, this hike's not over. Keep this up and maybe I'll show you that secret I promised too."

Exhilarated, and no less surprised by his own accomplishment, Fred rose back to his feet and followed after Rebecca who led the boy further through the woods and up the mountain.


	3. Chapter 3

The ascent up the mountainside had been hard work for Fred, but it was worth it in the end. Covered in sweat, dirt, and a few scratches, Fred now looked out across the horizon as far as his eyes could see.

"Unreal…." he gasped.

Standing atop a small plateau nestled high up in the sky, Fred could see a great many things. Forests stretched out across the mountain and further out toward neighboring mountains. Beyond all that, Fred could also see a great flat grassland that glimmered like a green sea in the waning sunlight.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Rebecca screamed.

Fred nearly tipped over and fell across the cliffside, for what would've been his third drop in just two days, in response to Rebecca's very sudden scream.

"What the Hell was that!? What happened?!" Fred huffed and puffed.

Rebecca responded by raising a hand up to her ear and leaning out by the edge of the plateau beside Fred. It was then that Fred heard Rebecca's scream once again, faintly echoing back at her from down below.

"Woah." Fred gasped.

"Heh heh, pretty cool isn't it? Wanna try?" Rebecca asked.

Fred blinked back at Rebecca before looking back out across the landscape.

"Uhhhh, I-"

Fred's train of thought lurched to a halt as Rebecca shoved her water canteen into his face.

"You'll probably want some of this first I bet. You hiked over five miles today. Congrats!"

If the sight of all this wasn't enough, hearing Rebecca pat him on the back gave Fred cause to slow down. The furthest he'd ever walked was his usual mile and a half to school and back, and that certainly didn't involve scaling any mountains.

"t-Thanks!" Fred panted, taking the canteen and squeezing some of its contents into his mouth.

"Thanks for coming! I enjoy the company." Rebecca replied with a smirk.

Lowering the canteen from his mouth, Fred looked out across the landscape once again. Taking a few deep breaths, he furrowed his brow and shouted-

"AND IT WAITS FOR YOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!"

Fred inhaled sharply as the world replies back to him, his echo clearly heard.

"Ha… haha, did you hear that?" Fred rasped.

"Sure did! So, what's waiting for me?" Rebecca asked back.

"Oh, its a uh- its from a song." Fred mumbled.

Fred reached into his sweatshirt's deep pockets and pulled out his beloved CD-player and the pair of headphones that came with it. He shrugged and went to put it away, only for Rebecca to reach out for them.

"Can I listen?"

Freezing in place, Fred frowned down at his CD player as Rebecca chuckled.

"Come on, I won't bite. I'll probably like it."

With a sigh and a shrug, Fred handed his music over to his camp counselor. She proceeded to bat away some of her long hair so as to fit the headphones on just right.

"This sounds cool." Rebecca chuckled again, raising the volume to MAX.

"Hey, he's gonna start screaming in a-"

Fred heard the vocalist blast his rage straight into Rebecca's eardrums, causing her eyes to bulge and a growl to burst out of her mouth. The camp counselor gritted her teeth as she lowered the volume and said-

"I LIKE IT!" Rebecca shouted, nature echoing back at the two of them. "YOU SHOULD-"

Rebecca stopped herself and ripped the headphones off of her head.

"-you should put it on back at camp. We got some speakers you can hook that CD up to. Anyway..."

The camper stared at her as she shoved the CD player back into his hands and shook her head.

"… take a good look Freddy. Not too many people ever get to see anything like this. Down below, if you squint your eyes, you can see the camp! Its a lot easier to spot at night when the campfires are going."

Fred pocketed his CD player and nodded along as Rebecca raised her arms.

"You can see a few different states up here, and that whole land behind us here is Canada!"

"Wow." Fred exclaimed. "That's pretty nuts. So this was the secret you wanted to show me?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"Nope! But I'm glad you remembered. You're in for a treat."

Motioning for him to follow, Rebecca walked across the plateau to some bushes nestled against the mountainside. Reaching into the thick of the foliage, she pulled back the bushes and revealed a large crevice which opened up into a cave.

"Welcome to my little home away from home." Rebecca exclaimed, pushing her way inwards. "You can make yourself at home!"

Fred looked on in shock, all of this having completely evaded his notice for the past several minutes. Following Rebecca's lead, Fred shoved his way past the bushes and suddenly found himself inside a chilled cave. Smooth rock flanked him on either side while a tall ceiling loomed above his head.

"Don't go too far though." Rebecca warned, suddenly brandishing and cracking a glowstick in her hands. "The cavern has a big drop up ahead. We'd BOTH get into a lot of trouble if you fell back there."

Rolling his eyes, Fred walked up beside Rebecca and looked everything over. His eyes soon fell upon painted figures etched into the stone and illuminated by the green light of Rebecca's glowstick.

"What's all this?" Fred mutters. "Cave drawings?"

"Uh huh." Rebecca murmurs. "This place used to be someone else's home long before you or me came around."

Placing her hand up against the cave wall, Rebecca shined her glowstick onto the drawings as Fred stared at them all. Fred's eyes sparkled as he observed stick-like figures carrying spears and bows. Nestled amongst them, seemingly standing by their sides, were what looked to be hairy four-limbed figures colored gray.

"Hey," Fred spoke up. "those kind of look like- like wolves."

"Yes," Rebecca answered. "and what does that look like here?"

Rebecca moved her glowstick across the wall and lit up painted figures of more people as well as brown and shaggy beasts. One such creature also appeared to be standing tall above everyone else on clawed feet.

"Bears." Fred whispered. "People and bears."

Fred grazed his hand against the cave paintings, his eyes staring unblinkingly at what he saw. It looked as if it was the scene of a battle, but these creatures looked to be a part of it. Right now, images of the grizzly bear and the gray wolf he saw so recently were flashing through his head.

And deep within him, he could hear it once again. The growl of the wolf.

"Fred?"

Breaking out of his trance, Fred jerked his attention toward Rebecca. After exhaling a breath, he stared wide-eyed up at her- but why he did not know. Perhaps he thought to see a monster standing behind him, but instead it was merely Rebecca smiling down at him.

"Fred, don't you feel like there is something special about this place?"

The camper furrowed his brow, muttering the word 'special' under his breath.

"You must have felt it before. The first thing you did when you got off the bus was start exploring the woods and the mountain. This whole place is special, and this spot we're standing in is like the heart of it all."

Fred ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.

"Yes. I mean," Fred sighed. "there's something I really like about this camp and these lands but I don't really get it. What do you mean by 'the heart of it all?'"

Rebecca continued to smile as she crossed her arms over her bosom.

"You and I are in the middle of the mountain, and its from here where everything branches out. Like a tree spreading its roots."

Fred closed his eyes and tried to think back to his science classes at school.

"You mean, like biologically?" Fred wondered.

"More like… spiritually." Rebecca replied.

Fred opened his eyes and frowned at Rebecca as she proceeded to walk along the opposite wall and illuminate various tribal symbols painted upon it.

"Gnosis." Rebecca exhales. "The spiritual stuff that exists in living things, and exists in certain places like this. Its what connects us all to Gaea."

"Gaea?" Fred mutters in reply.

Rebecca looks over her shoulder, the green glow giving her something of an otherworldly aura in Fred's opinion.

"Mother Gaea." Rebecca intoned. "She is the whole wide world, and the world is Her. She ultimately created every living thing, material and spiritual. Every living creature has a spiritual side to it, and that spiritual essence is Gnosis. Without it, we wouldn't really be alive. We'd be nothing more than blood and bone."

Fred stared at Rebecca, detecting a solemnity to her voice that was not there a few moments before. That boisterous counselor of his suddenly appeared almost like a different person, someone older and wiser. Even so, these things that Rebecca spoke about were things Fred could hardly wrap his head around.

"Gah," Fred grunted, looking away. "You're kind of losing me here Rebecca."

"Oh?" Rebecca cooed. "Do you only believe in things you can see?"

Fred rubbed the back of his neck while weighing his own response. Rebecca, for her part, merely waited with a small smile on her lips.

"No," Fred sighed. "but I have seen some pretty weird stuff lately. Things I've never seen before coming out here."

Fred then quickly added, with a smile of his own-

"I kind of like it. Nothing this exciting ever happens back home in the city."

"Heh heh," Rebecca giggles. "its never a dull moment around here!"

"Yeah," Fred snorts. "I guess I can see why people would think this place is special. Gnosis or not."

Rebecca nods, a hand planted on her hip while twiddling the glowstick in her other hand.

"I'm glad you agree." Rebecca chuckled. "I think you're special too Freddy."

Fred's smile faltered, his face turning away as he hid his blush in the darkness.

"t-Thanks." he grumbled. "You're pretty cool too. I don't care what the other campers say about-"

Choking on his own words, Fred looked back at Rebecca as he bit his tongue.

"Daw," Rebecca cooed, stepping closer. "I don't care what they say about you either."

Fred's eyes widened and his body became rigid as Rebecca stepped closer and wrapped herself around him. Her strong arms pulled him close into a surprisingly soft embrace as she stood overhead. There was an earthy scent that she exuded and which now seemed to engulf Fred, whose mind conjured images of a summer breeze or a bright sunflower. It was almost enough to knock him from his feet, if not for Rebecca firmly holding him aloft. Entwined like this, Rebecca began to speak and say-

"I always tell myself, if I can show just a few of you campers how beautiful Gaea is and how wonderful this land is, then its all been worth it. Thanks for making my day Fred."

Fred gulped, unsure of how to respond. He could not recall anyone save his Grandmother, and in his oldest memories his mother and father, ever embracing him like this. This moment of intimacy brought him a sense of inner peace that he had seldom felt before. It was as if everything in the world was in balance, and everything made sense.

"Well we should be heading back." Rebecca chirped, breaking off from Fred. "I think I just felt my stomach grumble. If we start heading to camp now, we'll be able to make supper."

"Uh, yeah." Fred mumbled. "Let's go."

Rebecca turned away from Fred and faced the entrance of the cave. After only taking a few steps, she stopped and raised her glowstick.

"Freddy, please promise me something."

Fred smiled at Rebecca as he slowly walked her way.

"Shoot." he replied.

"Promise me," Rebecca sighs. "we won't end up like the people painted on that wall."

His smile vanishing, Fred looked back at the wall and saw a last glimpse of wolves and bears squaring off against one another. He could swear, as the light of the glowstick faded from view, that there was red paint splattered on the coats of some of those creatures as they bared their fangs and fought.

"Why the Hell would we do that?" Fred whispered.

Turning away from the cave drawings, Fred walked after Rebecca and tried to ignore the sound of the wolf growling in his ears.

The walk down the mountainside was a breeze for Fred, practically a victory lap in the wake of his successful climb. A part of him wanted to brag to the other campers how he was able to take on the 'psycho counselor's expert level hike'. He also wanted to try and call his grandmother to tell her about the merit badge he won, while perhaps also leaving out the part where he nearly fell to his death. There was many things that he wanted to do to celebrate, and dinner was also starting to sound rather nice.

Yet, as he followed closely behind counselor Rebecca, he couldn't get her words out of his head. All that spiritual talk weighed heavily on his mind. With a scoff, he wondered how a counselor could get away with telling a camper all of that. Surely some of the parents of the kids back at camp would lose their minds if they heard Rebecca talk that way, or at least that's what Fred believed.

More jarring than that, Fred wondered how Rebecca could get away with half of what she's done today. Perhaps she really was crazy?

"Then I have to be crazy too." Fred muttered under his breath.

"What's that Freddy?" Rebecca asked.

"Nothing, just uh… thirsty is all." Fred grumbled.

"Oh ok. I have a little water left." Rebecca chirped.

The two stopped about halfway back down to the campground, somewhere in the middle of the forestry that blanketed much of the mountainside. The ground was fairly even here, and thus served as a convenient spot to take a break. Reaching into one of her cargo shorts' pockets, she pulled out her little canteen and shook it.

"Here, you can have the rest." she said, tossing her canteen to Fred. "I'm looking forward to some tea and honey when we get back to camp. And some roasted marshmallows too!"

"Heh," Fred chuckled. "thanks. You sound more excited than some of the campers I bet."

Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Fred and leered at him.

"C'mon, you aren't looking forward to a warm drink and roasted marshmallows? No one's too old for that!"

Fred chuckled before raising the canteen to his lips, only for a loud bang to pierce the quiet air and cause Fred to choke on his water.

"Ack!" Fred cried.

"That noise." Rebecca gasped.

Wiping some of the spilled water from his face with his sleeve, Fred coughed a bit and asked.

"What was that? Did a tree fall?" Fred asked.

"No… that sounded like a gunshot." Rebecca whispered.

"A gunshot?!"

Fred awaited another response from Rebecca, who merely turned her back on him and scanned their surroundings.

"Think I heard it down below." Rebecca hissed.

"d-Down by the campgrounds?" Fred stammered.

"No, we're still at least an hour's walk from there." Rebecca grunted.

Fred could feel his heart beat faster while Rebecca growled, her back still turned to him.

"A hunter maybe?" Fred suggested. "Like, there's gotta be-"

"No. Not here. Not on MY mountain." Rebecca snarled. "Fred, wait here. I'm going to take a quick look."

Cringing at the back of her head, Fred raised a hand to Rebecca and shouted in protest-

"You can't just leave me here! I'll come with!"

"No! Stay here!"

Rebecca turned back to Fred, who expected to see a look of rage etched on her face. Instead, there was a grin plastered on her face that seemed out of place with the things she had been saying to him.

"I won't be gone long. I promise I'll be back soon. Trust me."

There was still more Fred wanted to say, but he could hardly argue much more than he had. Without waiting for his response, Rebecca already began to crawl further down the mountainside. Fred once more found himself alone in the woods.

"Bah!" Fred spat toward the ground. "It probably was just a hunter. I'm sure someone like that would piss her off."

Leaning against a tree, Fred crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

"It kind of pisses me off too."

With a sigh, Fred resigned himself to wait a while for Rebecca to return. There was still much he remained uncertain about, and this recent trouble only agitated him further. Not even the beauty of the surrounding landscape could calm him down now. Just about the only way he could vent was a time-honored tactic of his; Fred reached into his sweatshirt and pulled out his CD player. With yet another sigh, he noted that the batteries were running out of juice.

"I'm going to need new batteries if I'm going to make it a month out here."

With a grunt, he placed his headphone around his ears. However, just before he could select a song something caught his attention. He looked up and saw some shaking amid some bushes only about ten yards to his side.

"Rebecca?" Fred called out, placing his headphones around his neck. "You're back already?"

Fred's eyes widened as a figure, like something out of his dreams, approached him. Staggering out of the bushes, came the glaring visage of a gray wolf.

"..."

Fred stared in silence, disbelieving what he saw with his own eyes. Staring back at him, with cold golden eyes, was this wolf that closely matched what he had seen and heard in his mind.

"Unreal." Fred whispered.

The wolf raised its head and sniffed the air for a few seconds before seemingly narrowing its eyes at Fred.

"h-Hey, who are you?" Fred stammered. "What do you want with me?"

The beast spoke nothing in reply, and merely began to march toward Fred. He thought to run, or shout and hopefully scare it away, but his legs remained rooted to the ground and his words choked in his throat.

"w-Wait!" Fred shouted.

Taking no more than a step back, Fred stared in shock as the wolf inched closer. Within his head, Fred heard once more the growling of his wolf- but to his confusion, the wolf in front of him did not appear to be making that noise. It silently strode forth until it was nearly upon him.

"Stay back!" Fred shouted once more, raising his hands up and taking another step backwards.

Not heeding his words at all, the wolf immediately closed in on Fred, who closed his eyes and grit his teeth. Yet nothing happened; Fred felt neither the fangs of the wolf biting into him nor the scrape of its claws. Instead, Fred felt its soft fur brush up against him as it continued on past him.

"Huh?" Fred murmured. "That's it?"

Fred opened his eyes wide as the wolf, seemingly uninterested in him, continued on its way. With a bit of a sneer, Fred stared at it and slowly realized a few things about this strange creature. While it bore similarities with the wolf he had seen before, this one's coat was a slightly paler shade of gray with a white underbelly to it. Far more alarming however was the dark red splotch in its side, staining its pale gray pelt.

"Its hurt?" Fred muttered.

Grazing his hand against his baggy jeans, Fred felt pieces of fur and freshly spilled blood atop his clothes.

"No way." Fred exclaimed. "You… you were shot."

With its back turned to Fred, the wolf answered him by abruptly collapsing to the ground.

"Aw crap!" Fred gasped. "Hey!"

Fred leaped toward the fallen wolf's side, dropping to his knees and forgetting the fear he felt only a few moments earlier. He raised a hand over the wolf, hesitant to touch it but eager to see just what state it was in.

"Did a hunter shoot you?" Fred asked it. "Aw God, that's a bullet hole isn't it?"

It was breathing still, albeit slowly and somewhat loudly, and its eyes were open although they looked to have trouble staying open.

"Poor guy." Fred sighed, shaking its head. "Dammit. Where the Hell are you Rebecca? What am I supposed to do with this?"

Slapping his hand against his forehead, Fred tried to figure out what he could do to help this beast. It was clearly injured, but Fred had no understanding of how to treat the wolf. What few video games he had played and action movies he had seen had ill-prepared him for this moment, but he assumed that either Rebecca or one of the other counselors would know something about first-aid.

"Camp's about another hour away..." Fred mused. "… but Rebecca said coming down the mountain is easier than going up it."

With a snarl, bellying a resolve that sounded foreign even to his own ears, Fred scooped his thin arms underneath the wolf's belly and lifted it up.

"Just my luck!" Fred hissed, lifting the wolf up off the ground. "Screw this, I'll make it back to camp myself!"

Straining his muscles, Fred huffed another few swears under his breath while stomping away with the wolf in his arms.

"GRRRRRR!" the wolf growled.

"h-Hey, shut up! I'm trying to help!" Fred growled back.

Just as Fred found it easy to devote himself to his task of climbing the mountain for his own sake, now he found it easy to climb down the mountain to help this wolf.

"I bet they'll say I'm crazy." Fred grumbled, sweat beading down his forehead. "But whatever. Maybe we'll run into Rebecca and she'll know what to do?"

The wolf whimpered for a moment as Fred eased himself down the mountainside.

"I'll figure something out." he sighed. "Weird. Don't know why, but I'm going to help you anyway I can. Just… just feels like the right thing to do I guess."

With a chuckle, Fred wondered if this wolf and him shared a few things in common. Perhaps times would tell.


	4. Chapter 4

Fred's body ached as he willed himself down through the forest with a wounded wolf in his grasp. The animal felt heavy in his arms, his clothing now stained with its blood along with his own sweat. It had likely been only five minutes or so since he had started to carry this creature down with him, but the fatigue from all the hiking and climbing had made that five minutes feel so much longer.

Thus when he came to a stop some time later, surrounded by unfamiliar trees and underbrush, he could do little aside from groan.

"Where the Hell are we?"

The wolf in his arms didn't so much as whimper, having fallen silent some minutes ago.

"h-Hey! Wake up!"

Fred flexed his arms, jostling the wolf who grunted in reply.

"Don't… don't die on me!"

With a sigh, he looked up and about. Try as he might, he could not find the path that took him back down to the campgrounds. He was certain that he had made it much of the way down from the mountain, that alone was clear. Looking off to the horizon, he made another disappointing observation.

"Sun's going down."

Reddish-orange streaks of light had begun to paint the sky, casting a long shadow over the mountainside. Fred knew that if things were rough now, they would only get worse if he got caught out here after dark.

"Just my luck." Fred sighed. "Its gotta be less than an hour away. I have to keep pushing."

Exhausted as he was, Fred found the strength to push on. Unfortunately, his staggering could only bring him so far.

"ARGH!"

Fred howled as he lost his footing, his boot slipping across a loose stone. He stumbled off of his feet and tumbled forward across the dirt and grass, the wolf in his arms flinging from his grasp.

"Oh no!" Fred gasped, his heart slowing to a stop. "Aw crap!"

Fred rose to his knees and scurried over the grass to the injured wolf. Panting down at it, he hovered a hand over its pelt and observed its chest rising and falling. The dark red blood continued to seep from its open wound, loose tufts of stained fur falling from it.

"Sorry." Fred muttered. "I didn't mean to… gah."

Fred slapped a hand over his forehead, gritting his teeth and asking aloud-

"Where the Hell did you go Rebecca?"

The wolf's eyes suddenly opened, its head slowly lifting up from the ground. Fred lowered his own head and stared down at it.

"What's wrong?"

Before Fred could cajole some other reaction out of the wolf, he twisted his own gaze behind his back. Just then, a barrage of noise like that of an engine whirring began to echo into his ears.

"Is that a car?"

Fred's eyes widened, the continued cacophony of noise coming out in rapid bursts.

"..."

No answer forthcoming, Fred lifted himself off of the ground and, to his shock, the wolf also lifted itself up.

"Huh? You can walk now?"

The wolf snarled, and with a speed Fred would never have expected, took off away from him.

"Where you going?!"

Fred raised a hand to the wolf, who sprinted into what appeared to be the dead husk of a large tree. Underneath its gnarled roots, the wolf holed itself up inside the hollow trunk.

"You scared?" Fred huffed, walking after it. "What's with you?"

Hidden within the shadow of other nearby trees, Fred could scarcely now catch sight of the wolf nestling itself inside this natural alcove. Furrowing his brow, Fred tried to make sense of what was happening while reaching down for the animal.

"Get out from underneath there. I can't-"

Fred's words were caught inside his throat as the wolf jerked its head forward and opened its maw. Without warning, the beast chomped down on Fred's sweatshirt sleeve. Tearing through the fabric, the wolf pulled him in.

"Hey!"

Fred cried out as he fell to the ground again, the wolf dragging him into the cover of the tree trunk. Tired and confused, Fred could barely let out more than a whimper of his own while the wolf pulled him inside. Only an unintelligible protest spilled from his lips as the wolf, possessed of some newfound strength, pulled him into the confined space.

"Stop that!" Fred growled. "Stop… that noise, its stopped?"

Falling quiet, Fred strained his ears and found that the mechanical noise echoing over had ended. The wolf mewled, laying its big head onto Fred's lap.

"o-Ok," Fred sighed. "think I get the hint..."

The sun continued to descend across the sky, casting shadows over the mountainside. Silence had fallen over Fred and his bloodied companion. The two of them held their breaths as best they could, in anticipation of what was to come. Before they could see anything at all, they heard another noise as mechanical and foreign as the last.

A static ping echoed all around.

"Bravo 3. Bravo 4."

Fred furrowed his brow and strained his ears.

"Bravo 3, Bravo 4." A man's muffled voice grunted. "Do you copy?"

Another man's voice, this one sounding much clearer and closer, gave a deep sigh and answered.

"Bravo 4. I'm here with Bravo 3, we copy."

"We heard gunfire, have you made contact with the target?"

The man, apparently this Bravo 4, took another few breaths before replying.

"Negative Liu," he sighed. "Bravo 4 and I opened up on a deer in the bushes."

Another voice, more muffled than the other, let out a pained laugh.

"So much for Bambi." that man, Bravo 3, chuckled.

Fred, quite afraid but also confused, inched a little closer toward the opening in the husk of the tree. His eyes stared unblinkingly at what looked to be two men clad in green military fatigues and carrying what looked like rifles. One of them, the chuckling Bravo 3, had some sort of gasmask covering his face, while the other, holding a radio in front of his sweaty pale face, seemed to be Bravo 4.

"You wasted all that ammunition on a deer?" the radio replied up at a frowning Bravo 4.

"Lieutenant… its getting dark, we thought-"

"Understood." the Lieutenant barked. "You and Bravo 3 pull back to the LZ. You are going to regroup with the rest of your squad."

Bravo 3 stopped laughing and brandished his own radio.

"Sir! The trail is hot, we found fresh blood less than a mile ago. If we could-"

"If the target is less than a mile away then it heard all that gunfire too. You just pissed away any element of surprise we might have had. Report back to the LZ and regroup with your squad. Now."

Before Bravo 3 could reply, Bravo 4 practically shouted a 'Yes Sir!' into his radio. The two gunmen looked up at one another, Bravo 4 shaking his head before wiping sweat from his brow.

"I can't believe this." Bravo 3 groaned.

"Pfft, if you don't want to go back empty handed you can go drag Bambi." Bravo 4 chuckled.

Bravo 3 didn't return any laughter this time, instead turning away from his squadmate to kick a stone aside with his boot.

"Let's keep going, just another mile." Bravo 3 sneered, cutting Bravo 4's laughter short. "Lieutenant won't know the difference."

"Woah what?!" Bravo 4 exclaimed. "You saw what those THINGS could do back at the plant. You really want to go after it now that it knows we're coming?"

Fred continued to watch as he mumbled the word 'plant' under his breath.

"Its hurt, probably has at least a bullet or two inside it." Bravo 3 replied. "If it bleeds we can kill it."

Fred blinked at the man as he looked down at the wolf lying beside him. His eyes focused on the bleeding hole in its side.

"You?" Fred whispered. "These guys are after you?"

The wolf raised its head, its yellow eyes staring up at Fred. The two locked their gazes together as Fred marveled at what he could swear was some kind of profound intelligence glimmering in the wolf's eyes. It was perhaps then that Fred was certain that this wolf knew far more about what was going on then he did.

"Unreal." Fred whispered.

"I've found something." Bravo 3 announced.

Fred's body shuddered as he turned his head and saw the soldier step closer toward the dead tree. Bravo 3 dropped to one knee and pushed a finger into the soil. Fred knew immediately that it was the same spot he had dropped the wolf.

"Blood. Fresh blood." Bravo 3 grunted. "We're close for sure."

Bravo 4's already pale-looking face blanched another shade whiter as he stepped up to his battle-buddy's side and stared down at the ground.

"Well I'll be dipped in shit." Bravo 4 muttered. "Hey man, we need to fall back now. We need to rejoin the platoon or else-"

"Or you can grow some balls and help me kill this monster." Bravo 3 snarled, standing back up. "That wolf killed dozens of people yesterday, doesn't that piss you off?!"

Bravo 4 glared back at his companion as Fred tried to process everything he was hearing. Wolf? Monster? Dozens of people dead? His confusion only continued to mount as the argument reached a fever pitch in front of him.

"Yeah, just a little bit. But I'm not gonna end up like them, and I'm not going to let you end up like them either. We have our orders. You were in the Army just like me, you should know better."

Bravo 3's expression was unreadable beneath the strange gasmask that obfuscated his face. Shaking his head, the surly soldier stared back down at the blood on the ground.

"We can take the long way down the mountain." Bravo 3 suggested. "Head back up a bit out of this underbrush then walk down from there once we find a path."

Bravo 4 looked back down at the soil as well and exhaled.

"Better than sitting still and waiting for it to find us." Bravo 4 grunted.

Fred inhaled his own breath and looked on in horror as the two gunmen began to march up the mountainside- directly toward Fred's hiding spot.

"Just my luck." Fred thought to himself, leaning further back inside the tree trunk.

With the two soldiers marching up this way, Fred proceeded to stare through the bark over to where he last saw them coming from. The next sight that took his attention however, was the wolf resting its head on his lap. Fred's eyes widened when he saw the wolf open its mouth and bare its sharp teeth.

"No." Fred silently mouthed. "No no no."

Battered, bloodied, and exhausted yet the wolf seemed ready to resist til the very end. His companion's resolve shocked Fred, who could only sit there in the dark and wonder if he too would be forced to fight. What other choice did he have?

The boy wished he owned a knife, or somehow had a gun. The footsteps inched closer and Fred wondered if he had any hope at all of harming these men with just his fists? He was no stranger to schoolyard brawls, but he knew this was a whole new level.

Finally, the footsteps stopped. Fred lay frozen in the dark, awaiting whatever would come his way.

"What's wrong?" Bravo 4 whispered, nearly giving Fred a heart attack.

"This tree." Bravo 3 replied.

Fred's jaw dropped as a flash of light illuminated the ground just a few feet in front of Fred only to flicker and die out.

"Damnit." Bravo 3 grunted. "My gunlight's battery just died."

"Here, I'll take a look." Bravo 4 muttered. "Watch my back."

Bravo 4 stepped closer to the dead tree, his boots stomping into Fred's sight. Now only several yards away, the gunmen was close enough that Fred could practically smell the gunpowder clinging to him. In that moment, Fred briefly looked around hoping to at least find a sharp rock or anything at all that he might defend himself with. Scrambling in the dark, he had run out of time.

Once more, a great flash of white light appeared and blinded his face. Fred stared back in shock, with no recourse left to him except to raise his hands.

"I found-" Bravo 4 shouted. "i-I found… a kid?"

The wolf shakily rose to its feet, Bravo 4 aiming his rifle straight at him and then back at Fred.

"a-And the target!" Bravo 4 exclaimed. "I found it!"

"You found what?" Bravo 3 asked. "What's going on in—GURK!"

Bravo 4 stumbled up from the crouched position he had taken and swerved about-face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Fred recoiled as the blood-curdling scream resounded outside the tree trunk, Bravo 4 shouting only slightly more coherently in unison with him.

"ITS HERE!"

Bravo 4's rifle joined the cacophony, a burst of deafening gunfire filling Fred's ears and causing his lupine friend to flinch. The thundering weapon only ceased its roar a few seconds later, as Fred watched the man's body fly up and crash against the very same tree he hid inside.

"ACK!" Bravo 4 cried out. "Son of a..."

Bravo 4's legs kicked aimlessly, his rifle clattering to the ground by Fred's feet. Fred then flinched alongside the wolf as his body, raised up into the air, began to smash repeatedly into the tree. Shards of bark began to rain down upon the two of them while the tree's roots began to lift out of the soil.

"SHOULD HAVE LEFT WHEN YOU COULD." A bestial voice growled.

Bravo 4 yelped as his body was thrown completely out of sight. It was then that Fred saw a new set of claw-like paws standing near the opening of the tree. The tree itself groaned as a hairy and muscular arm reached down and scooped the rifle from the forest floor.

The wolf whimpered as it began to crawl out from beneath the groaning tree, and with little recourse Fred scrambled out into the open as well.

"You… freak..." Bravo 4 heaved while sprawled on his hands and knees. "… I'm not… going down… like this."

Bravo 4 coughed a bit of his own blood out while reaching to his belt and brandishing a bowie knife with a stark white glimmer to its edge. Standing tall over him was a giant of a person, wreathed in a mane of wild brown hair and bulging with sinewy muscle. Fred watched in shock and awe as this beast-man raised the rifle up to its face and breathed in the smoke rising from its barrel.

"Baaaaah!" the beast-man shuddered, opening its dark brown eyes and bellowing out. "NEVER LIKED GUNS."

Fred watched Bravo 4's mouth fall open as the beast-man broke the rifle in half over its own knee, dropping it in two to either side of Bravo 4. The soldier attempted to stand up, only to stumble back down to the ground. Turning its back to Bravo 4, the beast-man moved quickly a few yards away to what looked to be a small boulder.

"No way." Fred gasped.

The scene jarred Fred. He looked away for a moment to find Bravo 3, the glass of his gasmask shattered revealing an eye which stared lifelessly upwards. Bravo 3's rifle laid to his side, while multiple bullets riddled his body.

"w-Wait…" Bravo 4 stuttered.

Turning back, Fred looked on just in time to see the beast-man lifting the boulder up above its own head.

"b-Bravo 4..." Bravo 4 muttered, brandishing his radio. "… h-help… HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!"

Fred watched in utter shock as the beast-man slammed a big heavy rock onto the back of Bravo 4's head, splattering him across the grass. Bravo 4's body collapsed and began to spasm as its blood spilled across the ground.

"ack." Fred's chest pulsed, a sickening feeling bubbling inside his gut. "w-What?!"

The boy wrapped his arms around himself after observing something he had only ever seen before in movies and video games. Never this up close, never this real. Everything about this was unknown to him, and it took great effort on his part to keep from simply vomiting.

A new, more familiar sensation, gripped him instead. Fred felt utter fear as the beast-man turned away from Bravo 4 and stared directly at him.

"Hell no." Fred chuckled. "Please no."

Standing taller, the beast-man stared with its dark brown eyes at Fred. Its knuckles cracked along with its neck. A moment later its gaze twitched aside before centering in on Fred once more. Then it broke out into a run.

"NO!" Fred cried. "NOOOOOO!"

The beast-man tackled into Fred, lifting him from the ground and holding him close to her bosom. Groaning loudly but a short distance away, the tree Fred once hid inside came crashing onto the ground.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh." Fred sighed.

The boy looked over the beast-man's shoulder and saw that the tree had crashed directly onto the very spot where he had been standing but a moment ago.

"FREDDY."

Fred shuddered as the Beastman put him down back onto his feet, his- her hands remaining upon his shoulders and keeping him steady.

"FREDDY. ITS ME." she grunted. "ARE YOU OK?"

Fred's jaw dropped as it saw the frayed remains of the crop top T-shirt hugging the beast-woman's chest. The words 'camp counselor' could be seen clearly in white letters.

"Rebecca." Fred whispered.

The camp counselor smiled, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

"YOU… you. Are. Well?" Rebecca asked, far slower and softer now. "I'm. Glad."

Rebecca exhaled, patting Fred's shoulder once more before letting go of him completely.

"What the Hell?" he muttered. "Rebecca, what are you-"

"Bravo 3! Bravo 4! Come in now!"

Rebecca's smiled disappeared as she twisted her gaze to the two mangled corpses and their shouting radios.

"WE NEED TO LEAVE!" Rebecca howled. "WHERE IS…. YOU!"

Rebecca twirled her body and sprinted over toward the wolf, who now laid upon the ground on his side.

"Aw crap!" Fred grunted. "No, don't tell me he's dead!?"

"BRINGER OF WINTER'S BITE!"

Fred's excitement gave way once more to confusion as he stared at Rebecca, who slipped her hands underneath the wolf and lifted him up into the air. Holding the wolf bridal-style, Rebecca turned to Fred and grunted.

"YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW ME."

Fred looked up at Rebecca wordlessly, staring at her as she began to trudge off through the woods with the wounded wolf in her arms.

"h-Hey, wait up!"

Still unsure of exactly what was going on, Fred could do little else but follow after Rebecca and the wolf she carried.

"Where are we going!?" Fred huffed.

"SOMEPLACE SAFE!" Rebecca howled back.

Fred stopped for a moment and shouted-

"What is going on!?"

"I WILL EXPLAIN WHEN WE'RE SAFE! TRUST ME!"

Fred felt light in the head, his body exhausted and his head filled with practically nothing except questions. Yet after observing so much bloodshed, he felt he had almost no choice but to continue onward.

"Some camping trip." Fred sighed, shaking his head. "Hey, wait up!"


	5. Chapter 5

Fred had little time to ask questions, and barely any energy to speak with, as he kept pace behind Rebecca and the wolf. Eventually however, the question of where exactly they were running off to was answered as a wooden log cabin suddenly appeared.

"WE MADE IT." Rebecca announced.

Fred staggered behind Rebecca, catching his breath while staring at the cabin nestled amid a throng of pine trees.

"Finally." Fred huffed. "I feel like crap."

Joining Rebecca's side, Fred stared up at the young woman and took in some of her new form: bulging muscles, even longer hair, at least an extra foot of height. Fred had thought Rebecca looked strong before, but now she looked like a giant.

"You're like a sasquatch now."

Rebecca gazed down at Fred, her maw widening and revealing a smile punctuated with sharpened canines.

"BIG FOOT'S GOT NOTHING ON ME. NOW C'MON."

Rebecca bounded over the grass and practically burst through her front door. Dragging his feet behind her, Fred came upon the open entrance to the cabin. The structure wasn't much to marvel at on the outside, but as Fred stepped past the trees obscuring it he observed what looked like solar panels on top of its roof and a few runic markings etched on its outer walls.

"These symbols," Fred muttered while running his hand upon the wall. "They're like what was back at the cave."

"WATCH YOUR STEP."

Coming to a halt at the open door, Fred looked down and saw that the floor of the cabin was nearly a foot below. With how dark it was becoming outside, Fred gulped at what might have been another nasty fall of his. The inside of the cabin was dim, but he could scarcely make out a single large room with a sofa, a boxy television set, a bed, and a large wooden table. It was the latter which commanded Fred's full attention, as Rebecca gently laid the injured wolf atop it.

"h-How is he?" Fred asked.

"HE'S GROWN WEAK." Rebecca boomed.

She lowered her face to the wolf's fur, snorting and then adding-

"HE'S LOST A LOT OF BLOOD. THE BULLET, ITS STILL IN HIM."

Fred's face darkened as he looked down at the wolf, his breathing having slowed and his eyes closed.

"Damnit," Fred sighed. "what are we going to- what the Hell are you doing?!"

Staring wide-eyed at Rebecca, Fred was shocked to see the monstrous girl open her mouth and lick at the open wound.

"r-Rebecca!?" Fred choked.

Watching Rebecca lap at the wolf's blood and press her mouth against the open wound nearly caused the poor boy to fall over himself. Grimacing at her apparent bloodthirstiness, Fred thought he might puke or even pass out.

"GURK!" Rebecca grunted.

Raising her head up, Rebecca recoiled from the wolf while turning to Fred who suddenly saw a glimmer of metal wedged between her teeth.

"PUH!" She spat. "FRED, THROW THAT AWAY!"

Fred's eyes turned to that same bit of metal that Rebecca had spat at the ground.

"Was… was that the bullet?" Fred asked. "You sucked out the bullet?"

Rebecca snorted, turning back to the wolf on the table. Leaning over the wounded creature, Rebecca slowly wrapped her massive hands around the wolf and embraced it as she began to lick at the wound once more.

"Unreal."

Fred shook his head and turned away from Rebecca to the bullet on the ground. The front of it had mostly flattened, leaving a misshapen hunk of metal. Yet even before Fred picked it up, he noticed how shiny it glimmered in what scant light was present inside the cabin.

"Wait." Fred muttered, picking it up from the floor and staring at it. "Silver?"

The boy's body shook as held the silver bullet in his hand. A horrifying realization came to him as it dawned upon him why those soldiers were armed with silver ammunition.

"FRED."

He barely moved a muscle.

"FRED!"

He barely heard a thing.

"Freddy!"

His body flinched.

"Huh?" Fred murmured. "y-You-"

Fred looked over to Rebecca and saw that she had reverted somehow to her usual appearance. Her muscles had shrunk, her body had become a bit less hairy, and she no longer towered quite so easily over Fred. However, her apparent reversal to this more familiar form now showed just what kind of damage this had done to Rebecca's outfit. Her crop top had been stretched thin and torn a bit while her cargo shorts were slightly shredded at the seams. Gone were her fingerless gloves and most of her pads, and normal human looking feet laid bare against the cabin floor.

"You don't look so good." Rebecca stated. "Bleh, you must feel exhausted. Here have a seat, I'll get you something to drink."

"No!" Fred shouted. "i-I don't need any of that, what I need is answers!"

"Answers?" Rebecca repeated. "What's on your mind?"

Fred raised his fists and struggled to find something the right words. The first thing he blurted out of his mouth turned out to be-

"You're a freaking werewolf!"

The boy's breathing came out in ragged huffs as he pointed an accusatory finger up at Rebecca's face.

"Me? A werewolf?" Rebecca asked. "Pfff, that's crazy! HA! Could you imagine?"

Fred gritted his teeth, his frustration mounting as he listened to his camp counselor's laughter.

"You're not?" Fred asked. "After all this, you're saying you're NOT a werewolf?"

"Of course not silly." Rebecca snickered. "I'm a Were-BEAR."

Fred's eyes widened as Rebecca smiled, her grin still carrying a deadly sharpness to it.

"Good guess though." Rebecca sighed, walking over to a mini-fridge on one side of the room. "I can't wait to tell him you said that."

"t-Tell who?" Fred stuttered.

"Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite." Rebecca replied, twisting off the tab on a can of beer. "The real were-wolf."

Fred turned over, once more at a loss for words as he stared at the wolf on the table.

"Him?"

The boy fell silent, his eyes staring at Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite as the wolf rested atop the table with a wound that had seemingly stopped bleeding.

"Want a beer?"

Fred guffawed back at Rebecca as she loomed over him with another can of beer in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

"Just make sure you drink the water too." Rebecca added. "You'll pass out for sure if you don't. Oh and uh, dont' tell the other counselors I let you drink. That'll get me in LOTS of trouble."

The lad furrowed his brow at her and stuffed his hands into his jean pockets.

"You really are crazy. I'm just a..."

Rebecca chuckled at his lack of a reply.

"… a kid?" she offered.

Fred stared daggers back at her as he reached up and took the beer and the water out of her hands.

"No kid could do the things you can do." Rebecca smirked. "You da the man, Freddy."

Turning her back on him, she walked over to one of her dressers and pulled out what looked to be an identical crop top T-shirt to the one she was wearing- except in far better condition.

"I get it now." Fred growled. "That first day I came to camp, you were that bear that chased me off the cliff!"

Rebecca placed her fresh shirt atop her dresser and looked back at Fred with a frown.

"I'm sorry it happened that way. Sometimes when I'm in my original form I kind of get… carried away. You seemed really interesting so I went after you."

Her frown faded, replaced by a new smile.

"But hey, at least I was able to fix you up!"

Fred chugged half his bottle of water in one gulp before sighing at Rebecca.

"Fix me up? How?"

Rebecca jabbed a thumb over at Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite.

"The same way I fixed him up. Its called Healing Tongue, its a special Gift that Gurahl- I mean, Were-Bears like myself can use. You remember what I told you earlier about Gnosis, and Gaia?"

Fred slowly nodded back, sipping his water while remembering their talk in the cave.

"You… you used Gnosis in a special, 'magical' way to heal him and me?"

"Uh huh! Gaia specifically made my people to be Healers first and foremost. You're catching on quick Freddy."

As Fred struggled to take in the reality of all this madness, while taking an experimental sip of his beer, Rebecca turned her back on him and began to lift her raggedy shirt off.

"HUH!?"

Fred gagged on his first ever attempt to drink a beer while Rebecca looked over her shoulder with her tattered shirt just barely concealing her breasts.

"I'm gonna change OK? You can step outside if you think that's weird."

Fred readily took a step back, his eyes staring unblinkingly at Rebecca.

"Its very weird!" Fred shouted. "YOU'RE very weird!"

Fred gulped down the rest of his water and stepped outside into the front yard with the rest of his beer.

"Crazy." he huffed. "Freaking crazy!"

Taking a few slow breaths, Fred wrestled with everything he had seen and heard and done today. Rebecca's immodest display was merely the kicker on top of everything else that had happened ever since he chose to come to this summer camp.

"Just my luck." Fred grunted.

Fred took a seat on a log some short distance away from the cabin and looked upwards into the sky. There was little telling how late it had become, but Fred could clearly see stars up in the sky.

"Woah." he muttered.

Up above was a sea of stars. The constellations and even a few planets could be seen with the naked eye, far more than anything Fred had seen before back in his home town. Slowly looking downwards, for a moment Fred felt as if all of these troubles of his were somehow small in comparison to the world he lived on.

"Gaia huh?" Fred whispered.

He took his can of beer and raised it to his lips, scowling at the taste but drinking it anyways in hopes that it could keep him calm. This beer began to make Fred think of home; while his grandma never once let him drink she did speak about how big beer was in the home country.

With a sigh, the beer began to have the opposite effect Fred had wanted. Instead, he put the can down and reached into his sweatshirt pockets to find the one thing that never failed to soothe his nerves.

"Eh?"

Fred found nothing in his pockets.

"What?"

Hopping up to his feet, Fred patted down his sweatshirt and even turned the pockets inside out as best he could. Twisting about, his eyes scanned the dark ground.

"No." Fred gasped. "No freaking way."

He began to pace the ground, looking this way and that until his eyes fell upon the the upper slopes of the mountain itself. Fred inhaled a deep breath and remembered earlier to when he was carrying the wolf and suddenly tripped and fell. Somehow he knew that was where he had lost it.

'My CD player! It must've slipped out of my pocket!'

Fred raised his hands to his shaggy blonde hair and scratched his head.

"Crap. CRAP!"

One of his favorite CD's had been inside that CD player as well. Listening to that album on repeat was what kept him sane during not only that long bus drive to the mountains, but on many bus rides back and forth between school. Those lunch periods spent sitting alone, those many after-school detentions sitting in silence.

"Just my luck!" Fred snarled. "Just my-"

Fred's heart skipped a beat. He remembered now, that very same spot he was so certain he had lost that CD player happened to be where two men had died. If one were to open up that CD player and pluck the CD out, they they would find a piece of scotch tape with Fred's first and last name written on it.

"AW CRAP!"

He paced across the ground, kicking dirt aside and stamping his foot up and down.

"SHIT!"

The door to the cabin creaked open and Fred glared at the opening.

"Rebecca! I'm screwed, I..."

Fred felt a cold breeze blast him in the face and then blinked upon the figure of a man. Gripping the side of the doorway, a masculine figure stomped out into the dark night. His black hair stretched down to his shoulders while his other hand clasped against his bare pecs.

"Bringer!" Rebecca shouted, running outside. "I said you have to take it easy!"

"I must see him." the figure growled. "Rebecca, please. I'm tired of everyone carrying me. Let me walk on my own."

With that, Rebecca backed away a few steps as this Bringer broke free of the cabin and marched upon Fred.

"Bringer?" Fred muttered. "The wolf, he's changed into a boy!"

Staring in shock, Fred took in more of his features while he walked closer. Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite had brown skin, and while he was a little taller and certainly more musclebound than himself Fred saw that he didn't actually appear much older. He was a teenager it seemed, with an almost unblemished exterior that was only clothed in a pair of shorts identical to Rebecca's.

"You." Bringer said with an icy glare. "You're the one who carried me halfway down the mountain, hid me when those gunmen came for me."

Fred furrowed his brow as Bringer, with a little unwanted help from Rebecca, came right up to him.

"Yeah," Fred muttered. "I guess I did."

Bringer silently stared at Fred as the air continued to cool around the two of them, Rebecca looking back and forth between the two of them.

"You helped save my life."

Bringer's glare faded away, and some of that chilly breeze quickly faded with it. Fred stared into Bringer's eyes and then down at his chest, where a bloody hole could be seen.

"When I met you, I did not know you." Bringer said, coming a step closer to Fred. "I thought you just a lost two-legger, but now I know. You are of the Wyrm-"

"Bringer!"

The native american wheezed,hanging his head and staring at the ground as Rebecca glared at him.

"Forgive me." Bringer sighed. "I meant to say, you are of the foreign tribes from beyond the sea. The first I've ever met. Never would I think of saying this to one of you, but thank you. Gaia bless you."

Fred blinked at the boy. Rarely had anyone ever spoken to him like this.

"Gaia bless you too?" Fred replied. "I mean, it was your idea to hide inside that dead tree earlier. I probably would've got us caught if you didn't pull me away. Heh."

He chuckled a little until Bringer raised his eyes and stared fiercely at him.

"Are you Garou?" He asked. "Or Kinfolk?"

Fred's chuckling ceased, and he turned to Rebecca. The counselor smiled back at him and raised a finger into the air.

"Bringer's asking you if you're a werewolf like him." she giggled. "Or just related to them by blood."

The increasingly confused adolescent was at a loss for words.

"h-Hang on. I can't be… i-I mean, I'd have to be bitten to become a werewolf right?"

Bringer cocked his head while Rebecca shook hers and spoke up.

"You probably figured out by now that you're right about silver hurting werewolves- and werebears, but you're wrong about how people like you and me come around."

Standing tall and raising a finger Rebecca explained with a grin.

"Almost every Werewolf or Werebear is descended from other members of their kind. That usually means your mother or your father was a werewolf, or maybe one of your grandparents."

"Those who have the blood of Garou in them but are not able to shapeshift," Bringer grunted. "They are kinfolk, family and tribemates bu not shapeshifters."

Fred was slow to respond, mulling over both of their words.

"I guess I'm a kinfolk then, I can't do any of that stuff." Fred shook his head. "I'm just an average guy."

"Hmph!" Bringer huffed. "Impossible. Even if you are Kinfolk, then you must certainly have much Gnosis in you. And if not that, then you must be descended from strong blood. Your ancestors watch you."

"OR," Rebecca shrugged. "you just haven't had your First Change yet. As it so happens, you're about the age where that might happen. Puberty and all that."

"Bah." Bringer groaned, rubbing his forehead. "How do you not know any of this? Did your tribemates not tell you? Or your parents?"

Fred shook his head while clenching his fists.

"I don't have a tribe ok!? And my parents..." Fred sighed. "… I don't have any parents either. Its just always been me and my grandma, and she never told me any of this. This is all a lot to take in..."

Rebecca and Bringer both fell silent, staring at Fred who failed to meet their gazes. Instead, the despondent orphan looked upwards at the starry sky.

"Hey." Rebecca murmured, reaching over and patting Fred's shoulder. "I'm sorry if I teased you too much earlier. Why don't you come on inside, we'll answer any questions you have. I can make us some food too!"

Fred hummed, looking up at Rebecca and smiling a little in return.

"I care not who you are, or where you came from." Bringer growled, flinching as he placed his hand over his bullet wound. "Even if we are not tribemates, I will call you a friend."

Perking up even further, Fred turned now to Bringer as his smile grew.

"Friend huh?" Fred replied. "You might be the first. Thanks."

Rebecca turned away from them and led the way back into her cabin.

"We'll have to stay inside OK guys?" Rebecca then pouted and added. "And no more yelling OK Fred? I brought us here to lie low."

Fred stumbled a little as he followed after Rebecca.

"Ah, right." He muttered. "My bad, won't happen again."

Rebecca ushered the two of them inside the cabin.

"They're still out there," she said, glaring into the darkness. "this isn't over yet."

Closing the door behind them, Rebecca picked up a thick wooden board and raised it onto a set of latches as she barred the way inside.


	6. Chapter 6

Dinner was a simple affair, but Fred and his new friend Bringer devoured it. Aside from bottled water and a few cans of beer, Rebecca's cabin was thoroughly stocked with canned food. After heating up some chili and cracking open some fruit, the small cabin fell silent save for the sound of their chewing.

"Rebecca," Bringer sighed, putting down his spoon. "can I have more?"

The older girl chuckled as she crushed an empty can of beer underneath her boot.

"Of course you can." she replied, tossing the crushed can aside. Here, I'll heat it up for you."

Bringer leaned back against the sofa, pressing a hand against his now bandaged wound.

"Thank you." he grunted. "I hadn't eaten in over a day. Cooked human food has never tasted this good."

"Well its not my first choice either." Rebecca shrugged. "But maybe I have a knack for this cooking stuff."

Fred raised an eyebrow at Rebecca as she cracked open a fresh can and poured its contents into a pot over a hot plate.

"Right." Fred muttered. "Well, its not bad. Better than the cafeteria food."

Fred leaned back over the couch as well, his eyes fluttering as he attempted to stay awake. It was an exhausting day, but Rebecca's warning that this wasn't over reverberated in his head.

"Who are these guys?" Fred yawned. "Is like, the government after you? Er, after us?"

"Heh, I doubt it." Rebecca chuckled. "Only government types around here are the park rangers and the local cops. They're pretty harmless."

"Its Endron." Bringer growled.

The wolf-boy rose up to a sitting position, his brow furrowed.

"They were ready for us."

Fred blinked at Bringer as Rebecca walked over to the two of them.

"So that was you?" Rebecca asked. "I figured it had to be."

"Wait." Fred interrupted. "What had to be you?"

Bringer scowled as he flexed his hand into a fist.

"They are the ones who started this, not us. Endron sent its soldiers here."

Fred stared at Bringer whose scowl proved short-lived.

"I am sorry, you're still new to much of this." Bringer said, looking away from Fred. "Endron has been an enemy of my tribe for a long time."

Rebecca hopped on the couch in between the two and began to explain.

"Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite comes from a tribe called the Wendigo. His people have lived here in the northern parts of the continent for thousands of years alongside the local native american tribes. His kinfolk live just east of here on a reservation."

"And Endron would see my people destroyed." Bringer growls. "Our land taken from us and our tribe reduced to nothing. For years they have tried to buy the rights to build oil pipelines on Wendigo tribal land. We know they are evil, that they serve the Wyrm, so we fight them and we kill them."

Fred quickly remembered back to the very first day he met Rebecca in her Bear form. There was a great explosion that rocked him off of the mountainside, an explosion he now realizes came from the Endron oil foundry.

"Hold on. You're telling me that you and your tribemates blew up an oil plant?" Fred asked. "That's crazy!"

"Bah." Bringer exhaled. "They serve the Wyrm. They are the crazy ones. I could smell the corruption on some of them, see it in their eyes even. Some of their soldiers are no longer human."

Fred stared at him another moment, almost tired of asking questions at this point as he wondered just what this 'Wyrm' could be. However, after seeing what he had seen today with his own eyes he was willing to believe just about anything now.

"They would've killed me." Bringer spoke anew. "They knew we would come one day, so they filled their factory with many armed men with silver bullets and silver knives. We killed as many as we could... but there were too many. I was separated from my tribe mates, and they hunted me all the way here."

Bringer grit his teeth as he forced himself up to his feet.

"… and now they will come for you as well Rebecca. Damn Wyrmfoe!"

The young wolfen lad snarled, shaking his fist at an unseen foe while Rebecca stared up at him with her mouth agape.

"Please," he grunted, lowering his fist. "forgive me. I did not mean to endanger you, but I was… I was afraid. I didn't know where else I could go but here."

Rebecca's face fell as she too stood up off the couch.

"You don't have to ask my forgiveness you big dummy."

Rebecca's frown curled into a warm smile as she wrapped her arms around Bringer, who's eyes widened at the sudden display.

"I'm just glad you're ok."

Fred cracked a small smile, lowering his empty bowl of food and looking away from the two of them. Bringer's fists began to shake by his sides.

"I wish I could've been there with you and your tribe." Rebecca cooed. "I know Endron is bad news, but I didn't think these locals were that bad. Guess I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Bah." Bringer snarled. "I wish you could have been there, but the tribe elders…"

Rebecca gives Bringer a quick squeeze before he can finish, breaking the embrace.

"Oh well, maybe another time. Here, I'll go get your chili."

Fred watched as Rebecca walked away to get Bringer his food while the injured boy slowly sat back down on the sofa.

"I don't get it." Fred whispered. "Rebecca took out two of them like it was nothing. Why wouldn't your tribe ask her for help?"

Bringer gazed up at the ceiling of the cabin with a blank stare.

"Rebecca's people, the Gurahl, are very few and very precious to us. Gaia created the Were-Bears to be Her Healers, and us Werewolves to be Her Warriors. So it is tradition that we leave them be unless their healing powers are desperately needed."

Bringer turned his eyes to Fred, his gaze hardening as he whispered.

"Other werewolf tribes did not value them as allies the way my tribe did. Your ancestors, who came from beyond the ocean, quarreled with them. Killed many of them. That is why we do not tell others that Rebecca lives here, and why we usually leave her alone."

Fred frowned at Bringer and then looked over at Rebecca as she crushed a few crackers and sprinkled them over a bowl of chili.

"t-The cave." Fred stuttered. "I remember now."

Fred thought back to that hidden cave near the summit of the mountain, the one he had been so proud to have climbed, and where he gazed upon those cave paintings. Suddenly, the images of the wolf-peoples and the bear-peoples splattered with blood seemed to make more sense than ever.

Rebecca's words echoed in Fred's mind.

"Promise me, we won't end up like the people painted on that wall."

Fred furrowed his brow, sitting up and returning Bringer's stern glare with one of his own.

"Look Bringer," Fred huffed. "I don't know who my ancestors are or what they did, but I already know I wouldn't hurt Rebecca. Or you."

Bringer glared at Fred, who glared back with the same intensity. The two, despite the sorry states they were in, refused to back down for a few seconds that felt like a long time. Fred himself was somewhat surprised then, when Bringer's stare softened.

"I believe you." Bringer sighed. "You seem unlike the other tribes I have heard of. You have honor as well as pride."

Fred's shoulders sagged, and he released a breath he did not realize he was holding.

"Thanks. You're pretty cool too."

Bringer glanced at him as he muttered 'cool?' under his own breath.

"Freddy?"

Fred looked up and stared at Rebecca as she handed Bringer a fresh bowl of food.

"You look pretty tired. I got some blankets and pillows for you."

With a short laugh, Fred rubbed a hand through his shaggy blonde hair and muttered a 'thank you'.

"Don't mention it!" Rebecca chirped. "I'm going to radio into my kinfolk back at the camp."

"Radio?" Fred asked.

In reply, Rebecca pointed a thumb over at the ham radio set off in the corner of the room, on a small desk below a mirror.

"I'll let them know everything's ok, and that we'll all be coming back in the morning." Rebecca explained. "You too Bringer!"

Bringer grunted with a mouthful of food.

"Yup!" Rebecca smirked while wagging a finger at the hungry wolf. "Don't think you can just cut and run after you eat. I'm not letting you leave my territory until that bullet wound heals completely. You're just going to have to join the camp until then."

Gulping down his chili and crackers, Bringer sighed and tried to say-

"I can't do that! I… I have no idea how to act around others my age. Let alone humans."

Rebecca smirked, looking to Fred.

"Well that's one thing you two seem to have in common."

Fred frowned back at Rebecca in reply, whose smile only appeared to grow.

"That's not funny." Fred muttered.

"Gah, no more jokes." Bringer muttered as well.

Rebecca's smiling gave way to giggling.

"Look at it this way." she said in between her laughter. "I doubt these Endron guys have the guts to attack a summer camp full of kids, so you two should be safe!"

Bringer frowned and ran a hand through his silky black hair, but did not speak up any further. Rebecca smiled down at her newest camper and then turned her back on both of them.

"You two can go right ahead and get some sleep. Good night!"

Rebecca marched off to the corner to fiddle with the ham radio, leaving Fred and Bringer alone on the couch.

"You can have the bed." Bringer grumbled. "I'd rather sleep on the floor anyway."

Fred shrugged, picked himself up off the couch, and staggered to Rebecca's bed.

"Wait, Fred." Bringer spoke up. "You really do not know of your tribe?"

Stopping mid-stride, Fred shook his head without looking back at Bringer. Then, with a huff he continued onto Rebecca's bed.

"It is what it is." Fred muttered.

Fatigue set in quickly as he landed face-first into her pillow.

"Argh," Fred grumbled. "this is way better than a bunk bed..."

It did not take long at all for his eyes to flutter closed. He made some effort to undress, taking his shirt off but choosing to keep his pants on knowing that he shared this place with Rebecca and Bringer. He thought he could hear the television turning on and Rebecca speaking over the ham radio, but it was not enough to keep him awake.

Such a deep sleep fell over Fred, that only a minute passed until he was aware of nothing else except his own breathing.

The breathing, after some more time had passed, turned into grunting.

Then the grunting had become something else entirely, more bestial.

Like a growl.

'The wolf.' Fred thought to himself. 'Is that the wolf from before?'

That great gray thing, with bristling fur and a furious snarl, was in his mind once more. While Fred could not see him, he definitely felt that it was near.

'Why does this keep happening?' he thought to himself. 'What's happening to me?'

Earlier the sight of this being in his dreams didn't frighten him but now he did not know what to expect. He began to shake with anticipation.

'Damnit, where are you?' he shook. 'Come on, show yourself!'

The wolf growled in response, or was that Fred growling?

"Come on! What's it gonna be?!"

Silence greeted Fred, an infuriating lack of an answer which made him groan.

"GAH! Why can't I just sleep in peace!?"

"Frederick, why are you crying?"

Fred's mouth fell open as he turned around and saw an old woman in a dark cloak. Her face was mostly obscured under a shadowy hood with only long dark locks of hair stretching out past her cowl Yet despite this strange form of dress, Fred knew who it was at once.

"g-Grandma?"

Fred stared over at the old woman, whose head rose slightly to reveal a smile. He couldn't be sure if it was really her, but the specter's voice certainly sounded like his grandma. Fred knew of no one else who called him by his full name.

"Frederick, my young boy. Why are you crying?"

Snorting back, Fred stared at her in disbelief.

"i-I'm not crying. I'm not crying Grandma. And I'm not a little boy anymore, I'm almost thirteen."

The old woman continued to smile, standing tall while raising her pale hands to Fred.

"My mistake. No, you're no boy anymore."

She patted Fred on the shoulder, her grey eyes peering down at him from under her hood.

"You have your father's eyes, blue as steel. And your mother's hair, gold like grain. Every day that passes you begin to look more like them."

Fred looked away from her and grit his teeth.

"y-You never talk about them," Fred sighed. "Who were they really? Were they like Bringer and Rebecca? Werewolves? Kinfolk? What am I Grandma?"

Fred felt a twinge of fear as he looked to his shoulder and no longer saw his grandmother's hand there. A low growl greeted him instead when he looked up and came face to face with that snarling gray wolf.

"You're back" he whispered.

The Wolf ceased its growling, raising its head and staring down at him. Although Fred felt he was standing, this great beast towered over him on all fours. Slinking past him, Fred felt the fearsome thing's fur bristle against him as his attention was turned in a different direction. Suddenly Fred found himself staring at a large stone which was even taller than the wolf itself.

"Are those runes?" Fred asked the wolf. "A runestone?

The wolf did not respond to Fred, instead focusing on the runestone as it reared onto its hind legs and pressed a claw up against a single symbol near the top of it. This symbol was difficult for Fred to describe, but to him it almost looked like two clawmarks crossing over each other. While he stared up at it, suddenly the strange glyph began to hold meaning.

"f-Fenrir?"

Fred wasn't sure at all where he deciphered such a meaning, but he knew the word well enough.

"Fenrir!" Fred blurted. "I remember that name! Grandma used to tell me stories of him when I was little. The wolf god."

His excitement was cut short as the implications of what he just said struck him. His grandmother often read Norse and German folktales to Fred, going so far as to buy him a few colorful books to read from when he was just a few years old. Fenrir was a mighty wolf, feared by many for his fighting prowess, and remembering this made Fred stare more intently at the runic glyph.

"Fenrir… Fenris? Get… of… Fenris..."

Fred sighed as the wolf lowered back onto all fours and stared at him with those intense golden eyes.

"Bringer's people, they came from the native american tribes. Then, does that mean I'm… Germanic? Mom and Dad, Grandma and me? We came from Germanic werewolves?"

While the wolf was not a growling and snarling mess at the moment he was still not much of a speaker. His eyes however, did seem to point to something to Fred.

"What are you glaring at?" he asked the wolf.

Looking behind him, Fred answered his own question as he beheld something that struck terror in him. Fred looked out into the dark abyss and saw some swirling miasma inching closer in the air. This dark cloud took the form of a wraith, a ghostly apparition with glowing red eyes.

"You've slept enough Frederick."

Fred took a step back from the monstrous figure and closer to the wolf as his grandmother's words echoed in his head.

"Now get ready to fight."

Inhaling a sharp breath, Fred shook his head and suddenly opened his eyes. Lifting his head, his blurry vision struggled to make sense of his surroundings. Rebecca's homely wooden cabin was only lit by the obtrusive light of her boxy television set.

"You are fools to challenge the Hundred Masks Clowns, let alone a Shih!" a woman's shrill voice cried out. "The Rat Ninja clan will fall before our blades!"

Fred rubbed his eyes and saw that Rebecca was apparently sitting on the couch, watching some kind of old-school martial arts movie. An empty box on her table, beside a few cowboy flicks and some professional wrestling tapes, seemed to indicate it was a VHS of hers.

Emphasis on 'was' as she had apparently dozed off.

"Rebecca?" Fred murmured. "Did you pass out?"

The camp counselor softly snored in reply.

"Ugh," Fred muttered. "Bringer?"

Scanning the cabin, Fred spotted Bringer lying on the floor. Having returned to his wolfen state, Fred watched a light gray wolf of some considerable size lie curled up on a carpet. He too appeared asleep.

"All of us fell asleep?" Fred whispered.

Fred breathed a sigh, and if not for that dream of his he would've likely went straight back to sleep. Instead, he pushed himself off the bed and strained his eyes to find the door.

'That monster.' Fred thought to himself. 'He was never in my dreams before. What the Hell was that?'

Walking up to the cabin's entrance, Fred rubbed his eyes and looked up at a sturdy wooden door reinforced by a long and thick plank of wood that further barred entry. He raised a hand to the door, only to hesitate and lower it to his side.

"Freddy?"

Fred looked over his shoulder as Rebecca stirred from her spot on the couch.

"Good morning." she yawned. "Didn't think you'd wake up so soon."

She glanced toward a wooden shutter and frowned.

"Sun's not up yet." She muttered. "Something wrong?"

Fred blinked at her while scratching his own head.

"I think something's out there." Fred whispered.

Rebecca frowned back at Fred, grabbing her remote control and turning the tv off. With the room almost completely dark, she rose to her feet and walked closer to Fred by the door.

"What makes you say that?" Rebecca asked.

"Uh, just a bad feeling I guess." Fred murmured.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at the door.

"Go wake up Bringer." Rebecca ordered.

Nodding at her, Fred walked toward the wolf as he lied asleep on a rug.

"Hey." Fred said, tapping the wolf with his finger. "Something's happening."

Bringer's eye's flared open and he turned onto his stomache, grimacing as his wound touched the floor.

"Take it easy." Rebecca grumbled. "I just want you both awake while I take a look."

"Without us?" Fred asked.

Shoving the wooden plank out of the way, Rebecca flipped another lock and cracked open the door.

"Shhhh." she whispered. "Be right back."

Rebecca left the door slightly ajar and slipped outside into the woods, letting some of the heat slip inside the relatively cool cabin. Fred sighed as Rebecca left them, looking over to Bringer who now stood on all fours.

"How you feeling?" Fred asked. "Better?"

The wolf looked to Fred and nodded his head.

"Heh, good." Fred sighed. "Glad to hear it."

Bringer did not respond, and Fred had to wonder if he even could respond in his current form. With silence falling over the cabin, Fred's eyes began to drift about the place.

"Those Endron guys," Fred muttered. "I know a big oil company has to have tons of money but I didn't think they'd have their own army. Its crazy."

Fred looked to Bringer for a response, but the wolf's eyes remained glued to the open door.

"They chased you for over a day, they got all these silver bullets and gas masks and..."

While his voice trailed off, Fred's eyes fell upon the ham radio in the corner of the room beneath the large mirror.

"… radios. They got their own radios."

Fred looked down at Bringer, who now stared back up at him.

"If we have a radio, and they have radios, then could they… c-could they track us down?"

A distinctive crack in the air answered Fred as Bringer began to growl.

"A gunshot." Fred gasped. "Crap!"

Bringer's growling increased as Fred's eyes widened. Immediately, the wolf made for the steps that led to the open door.

"Back inside!" Rebecca shouted.

Rebecca came back at once, pushing herself and Bringer into the cabin. Slamming the door shut, she flipped the lock and reached for the wooden plank.

"Rebecca! The radio!" Fred shouted, pointing at the ham radio set. "They must have-"

"Get down!" Rebecca roared.

Before he could finish his line of thought, Rebecca leaped from the doorstep and tackled into Fred. Simultaneously, a storm of bullets thundered through the door and the walls of the cabin. A whirlwind of wooden splinters began to rain down on them as Fred froze up on the floor.

"aaa-WOOOOOOOO!"

Bringer howled, lying flat on the floor a few feet away. Fred himself laid motionless, the noise of the bullets almost deafening as their enemies blasted away at the cabin. A few seconds passed and Fred began to twitch.

"a-Am I hit?"

Fred didn't receive an answer as Rebecca curled her arms around his body and shielded him.

"Are you hit!?"

Raising his head, Fred stared unblinkingly at Rebecca only to find no sign of injury on her. Looking upwards, Fred suddenly discovered how the three of them were apparently spared.

"Unreal."

The bullets continued to whiz above them, yet the floor of the cabin lied at least a foot beneath ground level. These soldiers were unwittingly blasting the cabin apart with sustained gunfire, but were firing over them.

"d-Did you plan for this?" Fred stuttered.

"Heh heh, guess I'm smarter than the average bear huh? And the average human too!" Rebecca chortled.

Fred frowned at Rebecca as she laughed at all of this, gripping Fred firmly in a bear hug.

"I crack myself up!" Rebecca grunted. "Now, time for you two to get out of here!"

"What?!" Fred shouted.

Bringer barked at Rebecca as well while she slowly disentangled herself from Fred.

"Neither of you can fight right now!" Rebecca explained. "I'll take these guys down by myself!"

Fred remained flat on the floor, his heart beating rapidly while processing Rebecca's words. Bringer in contrast, proceeded to bark and growl at Rebecca.

"Don't argue with me!" Rebecca growled back, pointing a finger at her mirror. "You can escape through the Umbra!"

"The what?!" Fred growled as well.

Before Rebecca could answer Fred, a blast louder than the rest of the gunfire echoed as a large hole was made through the cabin's shutters. The three of them turned their heads toward a small metal canister that rolled across the floor, and in the dim light Fred could read the caption painted upon it.

"Mustard Gas?!"

On cue, the canister wheezed out a sickly yellowish cloud of poison. Fred finally began to move, rolling away from the deadly gas, when Bringer stood up and began to howl anew.

"Awooooooooooo!"

Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite released a howl far more gentle than Fred may have been expecting, but it was the result of his howl that really surprised him. The temperature within the cabin instantly dropped several degrees and a fierce wind seemingly blew in from nowhere. Much of the splinters and broken fragments inside the cabin were blown away from the three of them, along with the gas which was readily blown through the many holes in the cabin.

"Ha!" Rebecca grunted, shimmying across the floor and away from the gas. "Good one!"

The gunfire outside diminished greatly as the air was suddenly filled with screaming and coughing, the deadly toxin evidently striking the Endron soldiers.

"Put your masks back on!" a man's muffled voice cried.

Fred himself shivered on the floor while the chilled air blew this mustard gas away.

"Now's my chance." Rebecca snarled, rising up to her feet. "Fred, just follow Bringer's lead. He knows how to Step Sideways into the Spirit Realm."

"t-The Spirit realm?" Fred repeated. "What the Hell are you-"

Rebecca flexed her muscles, her crop top stretching taut and her shorts beginning to tear apart while her hair grew longer and her body increased in height.

"FOLLOW BRINGER! GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Fred's jaw fell open while Rebecca began to transform into that shape she took earlier.

"RUN!"

His body shook as Rebecca roared. Turning his head, he looked at Bringer who looked to be breathing heavily. Raising his head, he snarled and turned away from Rebecca and took off toward the mirror. Unsure of exactly what was happening, Fred nonetheless followed after him. Picking himself off the floor, Fred watched as Bringer stared directly at the mirror.

"WYRMFOE!" Rebecca roared. "YOU'LL PAY FOR TRASHING MY MOUNTAIN!"

Fred looked over his shoulder and gulped at what he saw. Rebecca's muscles were continuing to expand and her height was still increasing while a layer of fur grew across her skin. Unlike before, clothes were ripped in entirety and the shape of her face began to contort into something beyond human or bear. Fred's eyes then fell to her hands, which grew razor sharp claws that appeared as long as blades.

"GAIAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Rebecca's roar was so loud that it caused him to stumble back. The cabin itself shook as she grew tall enough to touch the ceiling. When the ceiling itself began to give way, Fred twisted about and saw a far less terrifying but no less strange sight. Bringer leaped up, kicking aside the ham radio while scrambling into the mirror which shimmered like a pond.

Caught between this new form Rebecca had taken to battle Endron and the relative unknown of this 'Umbra', Fred shook his head and climbed into the mirror after Bringer.


	7. Chapter 7

Orphan of Fenrir Ch 7

A sickly feeling of whiplash and vertigo struck Fred for a moment, as if he was suddenly being torn in two. He gagged and likely would've screamed if his lungs could have found air, but quite quickly this shocking experience came and went. His body crumpled to the floor without making a sound, everything having become much quieter.

"w-What happened?"

The pitter patter of steps on the floor tore his attention upwards, where Fred came face to face with Bringer who stared down at him with wide and unblinking golden eyes. Bringer sighed, slowly turning away and walking out into the open. It was then that Fred saw that they were in a place that was both familiar and altogether different.

"Unreal!"

Fred pushed himself up to his knees and gaped at the new world that lied before him. Rebecca's cabin was still here, but it had become something more tribal and open. A hut with only one wall, the one bearing the mirror he had passed through, and four pillars holding up a thin and leafy roof. This airy space revealed to Fred the vast world that lied beyond.

"You guys weren't kidding at all." Fred murmured, pushing himself up to his feet and taking a few steps forward. "This has to be the Umbra, the Spirit World."

The young man looked upon everything with unblinking eyes. The forest bristled with life, even more than what Fred had seen earlier in his walks with Rebecca. The trees stood tall and glimmered a green light upon the land. Up above, the stars shined brightly alongside what Fred could only assume were comets racing through the sky around planets so vibrant that they too could have been brimming with life.

"Bringer, this is- this is awesome!" Fred shouted, a smile blossoming on his face. "I've never seen anything like this!"

Fred came to a stop several yards away from the hut, words failing him as he suddenly gazed upwards at what appeared to be a large bird. It stood tall, cloaked in gray feathers and gazing down at Fred with black eyes.

"An owl?" Fred asked. "Here?"

"Hooooooooooo!"

The great bird fell from its branch and unfurled its long wings. Fred gasped and took a step back while the Owl flew over his head, a spectral dust like stars shimmering down from it as the creature soared away into the woods. Raising his hands, Fred looked at his open palms as the glitter shimmered onto him like snowflakes.

"Was that a spirit?"

Fred inhaled a sharp breath of clean air as he turned his head toward Bringer and smiled.

"Did Gaia create all this too?!" Fred asked.

Bringer snarled, his white canines glistening at Fred.

"There's no time for this!" Bringer howled, his voice resounding.

Fred recoiled from Bringer as the wolf turned his gaze away.

"Rebecca, she's fighting Endron by herself now." Bringer whimpered. "I can't believe we left her."

A frown fell over Fred's face as he crossed his arms over his chest. He became silent while his thoughts drifted to what could be happening back on Earth, only for a new question to slip through his lips.

"Hey, how come I can understand you now?"

The wolf blinked back at Fred, cocking his head.

"How are we able to talk like this?" Fred asked. "It didn't even look like your lips were moving when you spoke."

"Hmph," Bringer grunted. "I don't know. Here in the Umbra, things rarely work the way they should. But that doesn't matter now!"

Bringer-of-Winter's-Bite took a few more steps away from the hut and closed his eyes.

"I must concentrate."

Fred didn't understand what it was that Bringer was up to, but a few seconds later when he opened his eyes Fred could see that there was a golden glow to his gaze.

"What are you doing?" Fred asked.

"Its possible to see through the Umbra," Bringer muttered. "if you just focus hard enough. Bah!"

Bringer's mouth fell open and for a moment he was speechless.

"w-What happened?!" Fred shouted. "What do you see?!"

Bringer remained quiet a short while longer, his glowing eyes staring intensely through what Fred could only assume was the boundary line between this world and the one they just came from.

"Carnage." Bringer growled. "I've never seen Rebecca fight like this, its incredible."

A smile crept across Fred's face along with a chuckle.

"Hell yeah." Fred cheered. "They don't stand a chance!"

Fred grinned down at Bringer, but the wolf did not return the smile.

"She's still outnumbered." Bringer spat. "The cowards, they're slinking back into the trees and firing from cover. Damn them."

Bringer closed his eyes and continued to growl.

"We must go back!" Bringer shouted. "We must fight!"

Fred blinked down at the wolf, who was soon glaring back up at him.

"There are guns." Bringer grunted. "The dead soldiers dropped their guns. You can take one and shoot back at them!"

His shoulders sagging, Fred shook his head in reply.

"I've never shot a gun before, I wouldn't know what to do with one."

The wolf exhaled and began to walk around Fred.

"You really never used a gun before? I thought you came from a city?"

Fred furrowed his brow at Bringer.

"I did, but that doesn't mean I'm part of a gang or something." Fred grunted. "And besides, you're still messed up from earlier. If we went back now, what could you do?"

Bringer came to a stop and met Fred's glower.

"I can still fight." Bringer seethed. "I MUST fight."

Fred raised his hands up and retorted-

"You'll get yourself hurt again, or worse!"

"I don't care!" Bringer howled. "I am Ahroun! A warrior among warriors, what good is all my Rage if my friends must die for me!?"

With a furious look, Bringer stared up at Fred and asked

"We need to fight Fred, its what we were born to do."

Fred gritted his own teeth, looking down at the ground and breaking eye contact with Bringer.

"i-I can't fight, not against full blown solders." Fred muttered. "Damnit! What am I supposed to do?!"

Fred raises his hands to his head, running them through his messy hair which he threatened to tear out.

"REBECCA!" Fred howled.

Bringer's growling intensified, a frosty chill spreading through the air as the wolf began to pace around the forest floor. The wolf's eyes resumed their glowing, and Fred presumed he was trying his best to follow Rebecca's battle.

"This is bullshit." Fred groaned, falling to his knees. "What can I do?"

Fred tried to steady his breathing, thinking back to what his Grandma had said in his dream.

"I'm supposed to be Get," Fred sneered. "I'm supposed to have viking and warrior blood in me. So why am I stuck here crying like—like some kind of kid?!"

He sniffled as he pushed himself up to a standing position, wiping a tear from his eye as he took a deep breath.

"Bringer!" Fred shouted, looking over in his companion's direction. "You're right. I think we should… w-we should..."

Fred's voice trailed off as his gaze caught a strange movement among the trees. His jaw fell open when he beheld what looked to be a massive eye-ball staring directly at him.

"w-What is that?" Fred stammered. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

Bringer growled, twisting his head and barking in the direction of the great eye. Fred noted that it appeared nearly the same size as that owl he had seen earlier, and when Bringer challenged it the eye suddenly rose up into the air and flew off into the woods with about as much speed as the owl had.

"A Bane-Spirit!" Bringer shouted, taking several hurried steps after it before flinching to a halt. "Out here, of all places?!"

Fred raised a hand to his mouth while a sickly feeling pivoted into his stomach.

"What the Hell is a Bane spirit?" Fred moaned. "Are they Wyrm things too?"

"Yes, but I didn't think to see one here." Bringer explained. "That looked like a Spectator Bane, a scout. That must mean there are more of them, here in the Umbral side of the mountain."

Fred shook his head and exhaled.

"Just our luck." Fred spat. "Then I guess the Umbra isn't safe either."

"Nowhere is safe." Bringer grunted. "They must have followed Endron's men here, or… or Endron summoned them here somehow."

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Fred could only pout at the predicament they were in.

"Well, whatever!" Fred exclaimed. "I think I'd rather get shot then messed up by some crazy demon like-"

Fred's eyes widened and he looked up into the sky.

"-Like in my dream."

Fred began to scan the skies, a fairly easy task with how bright the stars and planets above appeared.

"What is it?" Bringer asked, walking up to Fred's side. "What do you see?"

Narrowing his eyes, Fred quietly searched the heavens above.

"I… I think something's coming. Something… THERE!"

Jabbing a finger skyward, Fred directed their attention to a swirling shadow up in the night sky. Illuminated against the backdrop of stars and planets, this dark specter could clearly be seen as it lowered itself downwards. With each passing second, it appeared to grow larger in size.

"w-What am I looking at?" Fred stammered.

"Whatever it is, it must be of the Wyrm!" Bringer shouted.

Fred's heart sank as he saw the figure take a familiar shape; this otherworldly monster resembled that of the wraith he had seen in his dream. He glanced at Bringer while taking a step back, and before he could do anything else the phantom changed once more before his eyes.

"By Gaia," Bringer growled. "its stepping sideways!"

A hole seemed to split through the sky like a wound as the dark creature busted into the Umbra. The figure that was on the other side, presumably that of the Earth, now tumbled down onto this spectral plane- in the shape of a man.

"Hooah." the invader whispered.

Fred and Bringer tensed up as they stared down this new arrival, who proceeded to stand up tall in front of them. The former blinked while the latter glared as they looked upon a soldier, vaguely dressed like the ones they had faced before, except this one's face was obscured behind a black ski mask that only revealed his sickly yellow eyes.

"This is Ferret," the stranger drones while reaching for his radio on his shoulder. "I have intercepted the target and one additional hostile. Over."

A shriek of static greeted him back, one that wailed across the landscape as he ripped the radio right off of his vest.

"Figures." Ferret sneered, his previously mechanical voice gaining a sense of vitriol. "Guess I'm on my own. Again."

The hackles on Bringer's fur rose as he growled over at the soldier who called himself Ferret, who proceeded to narrow his eyes back at him.

"You've given us quite a lot of trouble, little guy." Ferret sighs. "And who are you supposed to be?"

Fred stood still, breathlessly staring at Ferret whose eyes had shifted to him.

"You're no injun, so you must be from another tribe right?" Ferret wondered aloud. "This whole operation must be bigger than any of us thought. With so many of my men dead, it has to be."

"y-Your men?" Fred muttered. "You must be that lieutenant guy."

Ferret grunted, taking a step closer which caused Bringer to growl louder.

"What's the matter boy?" Ferret growled back. "You scared? Well you should be. I was hoping we could take you in alive, but after all this trouble I'd be happy with a corpse. Maybe I'll make a pelt out of you."

"Wyrm-scum." Bringer howled, the air around him instantly cooling. "If your hide was not so tainted, perhaps I'd make a pelt out of you!"

Ferret chuckled back, his gloved hand reaching for his belt. Fred noticed at that moment that instead of a rifle, he carried what looked to be a revolver at his side. Yet instead of grabbing that, he brandished a large knife.

"So you can talk eh?" Ferret asked. "Let's see if you can play dead."

The soldier tossed the blade back and forth between his two outstretched hand, the metal glimmering in the dark.

"h-Hey!" Fred shouted, his eyes widening. "Bringer, I think that knife's made out of silver!"

"So be it." Bringer growled, taking a few steps closer. "I'm better now thanks to Rebecca, this weasel dies now."

Fred raised an eyebrow at Bringer, his gaze falling upon the reddish splotch on his light gray fur.

"Are you sure?" Fred muttered. "You still look a bit-"

"HROOOOOAAAARRR!"

Stumbling back a bit, Fred watched as a stiff breeze billowed around Bringer. His white and gray fur bristled, growing in length as his entire body expanded. Crackling noises echoed across the Umbra while Bringer howled louder and louder. Fred could do little more than recoil at the sight of his wolf companion as he shifted into a form he had never seen before.

"Woah." Fred gasped. "Unreal!"

Fred could hardly believe his eyes, which now gazed upon a wolf that appeared larger than a tiger with incredibly sharp claws that dug into the soil and a grisly maw that was full of sharp teeth.

"DIE WYRMFOE!"

Bringer sprinted forward, clearing the distance between him and Ferret in an instant. Fred's jaw dropped as Bringer leaped into the air and hurtled straight for his foe.

"Gah!" Ferret snarled, jerking aside.

Ferret tumbled away, narrowly avoiding Bringer's claws. Taking a knee, the soldier slashed at Bringer who just narrowly bounced back from him.

"Ha!" Ferret snorted, rising to his feet. "I'm not your typical prey. Its not gonna be that easy kid."

The massive dire wolf snarled in reply while he and his opponent began to circle one another.

"I can't believe they move so fast." Fred exclaimed. "One wrong move, and either of them could've..."

Fred's fists began to shake as dark images of Bringer stabbed with a silver knife flooded through his head.

"Damnit. If that were to happen, what could I do? Would Rebecca even be able to save him then?!"

Gritting his teeth, Fred watched the fight unfurl while shouting-

"Bringer! Kick his ass!"

"WITH PLEASURE!"

With another fierce howl, a breeze as fierce as the one that was summoned against the mustard gas earlier was called forth by Bringer. Fred himself fell to the grass, catching himself on his hands and knees. When he looked up, he saw Bringer charging Ferret who was clearly caught off-balance!

"YOU'RE MINE!" Bringer howled.

Ferret sneered as he pivoted forward, flashing his combat knife at Bringer. Fred, staring intently as the wind blew over him, watched as Bringer clawed at his enemy. In a brief flash, the knife was knocked aside out of Ferret's grasp.

"Shit!" Fred cried, swerving aside as the blade sailed past him.

"ARGH!"

Looking up, Fred then saw a grisly sight as Bringer chomped deeply into Ferret's left arm which he had raised in front of him.

"Bastard!" Ferret screamed, reaching for his revolver. "Eat this!"

Fred's heart stopped upon seeing the soldier whip out the revolver and point it right at Bringer's head. A loud gunshot resounded across the forest.

"BRINGER!" Fred shouted.

"Bah..." Bringer panted in reply.

The dire wolf staggered back at least ten paces, backing up toward where Fred had been lying on the ground. Scrambling over, Fred reached up to his friend.

"a-Are you hit!?" Fred stuttered.

"Am I?" Bringer sighed.

Fred scanned Bringer, finding fresh blood dripping across the side of his head.

"Holy crap." Fred exhaled. "I think it just grazed you."

"Slippery son-of-a-bitch aren't you?" Ferret scoffed. "Tell ya the truth, I gotta respect something that can cheat death so much."

Looking over to the Endron soldier, Fred and Bringer could clearly see that Ferret's left arm was hanging limply by his side with quite a lot of blood muddying up his sleeve. Yet in his good arm was gripped that deadly revolver of his, and in his eyes was a look that could also kill.

"Something tells me that blondie isn't quite as clever." Ferret chuckled. "Let's find out!"

Fred gasped as Ferret jerked the revolver up and pointed it right at him.

**CLICK**

"Huh?"

Ferret squeezed his revolver, which released a second click followed by a third.

"Ah Hell." Ferret wheezed. "I blew too many bullets on that bear!"

"i-I'm alive." Fred whimpered. "Wait, bear?!"

"HOW DARE YOU!"

Bringer howled, his growl echoing loud enough to snap Fred out of his stupor. Standing up, Fred took a step away this time from Bringer. The wolf's hackles rose, his blood-streaked fur standing on end.

"THIS IS OUR BATTLE, LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!"

With a blood-curdling roar, Bringer broke out into a charge. Ferret leaped into action at the same time as Bringer, ineffectually tossing his revolver at the dire wolf while backing away. In his Rage, Bringer pounced on Ferret once more. However, the soldier sidestepped the blow and Bringer's claws raked into a spectral tree instead.

"Yeah right!" Ferret scoffed.

Fred's jaw dropped when, instead of backing off some more, Ferret pounced on Bringer this time. Left without a weapon, the much smaller warrior jumped up wrapped his good arm around Bringer's neck.

"Dumb mutt! I'll kill you all! And with my bear hands!"

Digging his boots into the dirt and flexing his only functional arm, Ferret curled his grip tightly around Bringer's throat and squeezed with all his might. The two grappled, smearing their blood across one another while only barely managing to stay standing.

"C'mon damnit." Ferret grunted. "Let's hear that neck snap!"

"Oh Hell." Fred muttered. "Break out of it Bringer!"

His wolf companion could not muster a reply, unable to speak while he tried to shake Ferret off. A moment later, Bringer broke out into a jog and slammed himself along with Ferret against a different nearby tree.

"Oh crap." Fred said under his breath. "He can't break free. Crap!"

Stomping a foot into the ground, Fred could not take his eyes off of what was happening.

"i-I gotta go back, get Rebecca- get someone! i-I can't..."

Fred's words trailed off while he ceased his shivering, a few comforting words passing through his mind as if flowing by with the breeze.

'Now get ready to fight.'

Furrowing his brow, Fred raised his fists and grunted-

"I'm done screwing around!"

He could see that Bringer was slowing down and steadily losing this fight. Knowing his friend wouldn't last much longer, Fred flinched toward him and Ferret. However, his eyes caught a glimmer of metal at his feet as he did so.

"The gun." Fred muttered. "No bullets left, but he also had-"

Twisting around, Fred beheld the silver knife glimmering atop a patch of grass beside a few daisies.

"The knife!"

Barreling toward the blade, Fred scooped up the knife and then turned back to the battle.

"Gotta—gotta not miss." Fred huffed, the weapon feeling heavy in his hands. "If I miss, I could..."

Bringer choked, falling to the forest floor as Ferret wrestled him down.

"NO!" Fred shouted. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Throwing aside his fears and doubts, Fred raised the knife and broke out into a run.

"GET AWAAAAAAAAY!"

Closing the distance, Fred brought his knife down upon the tangled mess of fur and camouflage.

"ACK!"

Staring with unblinking eyes, Fred held his breath as he dug the silver knife straight into Ferret's backside.

"WHAT—THE-aaaaaaaaaaa"

Ferret finally released his grip on Bringer, who sharply inhaled some fresh air.

"I.. I got him." Fred muttered while Ferret's blood dripped down his face. "I got him!"

Before Fred could celebrate, a black blur sped into his vision. Fred grunted in pain, his gaze shooting upward while his back hit the ground. Raising his head, he slowly processed how Ferret backhanded him while the soldier crawled away with the knife in his back.

"f-Ferret down." the soldier wheezed. "Need… medic…"

Bringer continued to choke and cough even as air filled his lungs once more. Fred could see stars blocking his vision, but he was still conscious of his friend rising up onto his legs as he himself stood up. However, their revival came perhaps a moment too late.

"Re-retreat." Ferret spat, coughing up his blood upon the ground before fading away in a flash of sickly green light.

"NO," Bringer growled. "HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

Fred grit his teeth and stomped over to where Ferret lied only a moment ago.

"You mean he stepped sideways again? Back to Earth?"

Bringer nodded in reply.

"Then lets go get him!" Fred shouted, rubbing his bruised cheek.

Standing up fully now, Fred became away of just how massive Bringer was in this current form. If he hadn't come to know him earlier, Fred might have been quite scared to be standing beside this hulking beast. However, none of that bothered him much now.

"What are we waiting for?!" Fred shouted once more.

Fred was then caught off guard as Bringer curled his lips in what he could only assume was a fierce smile.

"NOW YOU ARE ACTING LIKE GAROU!"

A smile slowly pursed across Fred's lips in reply. Closing his eyes, Bringer fell silent and slowly the world around the pair began to shift. The brightness of the stars above dimmed, and the vibrant energy radiating from the trees quieted until a bit of darkness and silence fell over them. In but a minute's time, Fred and Bringer left the Umbra and returned to the mortal plane.

The sight before them was a brutal one to say the least.

"Ah," Fred murmured. "my God."

Fred's body shook, his eyes looking upon something out of a nightmare. Blood had been splattered across the ground and the trees, while severed arms and legs were scattered here and there alongside smoking rifles and empty shell casings. It was a mangled mess of bodies and weaponry, something reminiscent of a warzone. The two looked upon all this, not making a sound until Bringer lifted his nose up and sniffed the air.

"w-What do you smell?" Fred asked.

Bringer did not, or could not anymore, speak back to Fred but he did gasp in reply. The massive wolf broke off into a jog, and Fred followed after.

"Oh no." Fred puffed. "Rebecca!"

The two boys slid to a halt around a large grizzly bear, lying flat upon her stomach with her face in the dirt. Even in this dim light, Fred could see scattered here and there across the bear's body was bloody bullet-holes.

"No!" Fred cried out. "HELL NO!"

Bringer whimpered, bringing his snout close to Rebecca's face while Fred fell to his knees at her side.

"r-Rebecca, you can't be dead." Fred stammered, raising a hand to her but not daring to lay it upon her. "Wake up!"

Then, to their shock, Rebecca's brownish eyes slowly peeped open.

"REBECCA!" Fred shouted.

Bringer howled a moment after Fred's outburst, and then Rebecca herself rose up to her paws. Buckling under her own weight, she then fell onto her side and revealed the mauled body of a slain soldier that lied beneath her.

"Damn!" Fred swore. "h-Hey take it easy, you're… its a miracle. All these bullets must've been silver right?"

Rebecca's body rose and fell with each labored breath she took until suddenly her body began to expand. Fred and Bringer both stumbled back, the two staring wide-eyed while her body grew to an immense size with incredibly sharp claws and a massive furry head.

"The Hell is happening?!" Fred asked. "She looks like-"

Fred did a double take at Bringer, realizing how he himself had taken his current form just before fighting Ferret.

"-like a Dire Bear."

Several seconds passed by, yet Rebecca's body continued to shapeshift. Her furry body elongated, and her claws continued to grow in size as her stomach gained a noticeable increase in muscle definition. From there, her body reached such immense proportions that she resembled the mighty creature Fred had seen just before Stepping Sideways into the Umbra.

"Why this form?" Fred muttered. "Rebecca, what are you doing? Doesn't this hurt?!"

Rebecca roared in reply, so loud that Fred instinctively raised his hands to his ears and looked away from her shifting form. Even with his ears covered, he could still feel Rebecca's booming voice rattle his body while the cracking and popping of bone against flesh clued him into what she was going through. When Fred finally looked back a few moments later, he saw that Rebecca's body had transformed into the same form she had taken when she saved him and Bringer the day before.

"GAIA! GAIA PRESERVE ME!"

Fred's mouth fell open when he finally tore his gaze back to her. The shaggy hair on Rebecca's body shed quickly or otherwise receded back under her skin. Her musclebound form shrunk, instead taking the shape of an athletically built young woman Fred remembered well. Finally, with one last crack of an unseen bone, Rebecca's eyes wrenched open and she exhaled a long breath of hot air.

"Ouch."

With that soft cry, she fell flat on her back across the forest floor. Her glazed eyes stared up into the sky as her naked body finally lay still.

"w-Why the Hell..." Fred whispered.

Bringer inched closer, his calm eyes fixed on his friend. With a lick, he touched her face.

"Heh," Rebecca chuckled. "hey Bringer. You're bleeding, are you hurt?"

Fred looked on in awe as Bringer stood over Rebecca's body.

"h-How could you say ask something like that?" Fred replied. "Look at you."

Although he felt a tinge of shame, staring upon her naked body, it wasn't her private regions that attracted Fred's attention. Now in a homid form, Fred could see clearly where the Endron soldiers' bullets had struck. She had taken several shots to her abdomen, gaping bloody holes marking her.

"I think I pushed all the bullets out with that," Rebecca sighed. "guess I'm lucky I didn't rupture anything. Heh heh-ack."

Rebecca gritted her teeth and Bringer whimpered in reply.

"I'm fine," she said with a weak smile. "it just hurts to laugh."

Fred stepped over to Rebecca's side and dropped to one knee.

"You too Freddy?" Rebecca asks. "That looks like a nasty bruise. What happened to you two?"

Furrowing his brow, Fred did his best to hold back the tears in his eyes as he shouted.

"I'm fine! I'm completely fine damnit! How can you even say something like that! I'm not the one that got freaking shot!"

Fred raised a hand to his face and struggled to choke back a sob.

"You- YOU- GAH! i-I didn't ask you to die for me. Please don't die. Please don't die."

Closing his eyes, Fred felt warm tears streak down his face and sting his bruised cheek. He wished more than anything that he could've finished Ferret off and gotten here sooner

"w-We should've been here. I'm so sorry."

"Freddy, stop that."

Fred's eyes bolted open as he felt a hand ruffle through his blonde hair. He lowered his own hand as Rebecca patted his head and smiled up at him.

"I promise I won't die," Rebecca whispered. "so don't you cry for me. We won, didn't we?"

Sniffling, Fred closed his eyes once more and let Rebecca scratch his scalp. He took a few deep breaths while wiping his sweatshirt's sleeve over his face. When the tears finally stopped flowing, he looked down at her with a steely gaze.

"There was someone we were fighting, in the Umbra." Fred grunted. "It was an Endron soldier, their leader stepped sideways. And there was some kind of evil spirit too. Bringer, you called it a Bane spirit right?"

Bringer barked, his bloody mouth showing his glistening teeth.

"That's messed up," Rebecca sighed. "normal people can't step sideways. And if a spirit of the Wyrm was here, then there might be more."

She turned her head to face Bringer before looking back at Fred.

"I don't think I can fight anyone else tonight. Its up to you two."

Fred stared back for just a second before nodding his head and standing up.

"What do we do?" he asked.

Rebecca looked up to the sky.

"Helios is rising." she muttered. "The sun will be coming up. Bringer, try to hunt down the rest of the soldiers. I think a few of them ran off screaming when I came out of the cabin, and I'm guessing that leader guy is still out there?"

Bringer raised his head and howled to what few stars still remained visible.

"Heh, have fun." Rebecca said with a smirk. "Freddy, there's something I need you to do too."

Fred stood tall and clenched his fists while awaiting Rebecca to finish.

"You remember when we reached the summit of the mountain? The cave I showed you?"

"Yes." Fred replied. "You said it was the heart of the mountain."

He raised an eyebrow at Rebecca as memories of all the things she had said to him there came rushing back.

"That's right." Rebecca sighed. "You're a good listener. I need you to go back there right now."

"Back to the cave?"

"Yes. My people call those places our Umbral Glades. I use that cave to Step Sideways, and when I rest there I'm able to regain Gnosis to fuel my healing powers."

Rebecca closed her eyes, and Fred waited for her to catch her breath and finish.

"If Spirits of the Wyrm are on my mountain, then they may go there. If my glade falls to the Wyrm, then the mountain will die. The forests will start to decay, the animals will leave, and Gaia-"

The young lady grit her teeth and clenched her eyes shut tighter.

"-Gaia will suffer."

"I'll do it!" Fred shouted. "I don't know how, but I'll do it! I'll protect the Umbral Glade with my life."

Bringer nodded his head and stared back at Fred, who returned his wolfen gaze.

"Heh, good." Rebecca exhaled. "Freddy, you have to be a werewolf. There's no doubt in my mind. When you get to my cave, go as far back as you possibly can. Maybe back there, you'll find what you need in order to Change."

"t-To change?"

Rebecca nodded.

"Your First Change."

Fred looked down at his own two hands and considered what Rebecca just told her.

"Then, I'm not just a Kinfolk? I can fight just like you two?"

He clenched his hands into fists and nodded. Then, he gripped the folds of his sweatshirt and pulled his garment up above his head.

"Here." he said, kneeling down. "You take it easy and rest. We'll handle things and come right back for you."

Stooping over her, Fred draped Rebecca's naked body with his black sweatshirt up to her neck. She smiled up at him, her eyes fluttering closed.

"We'll be right back." he said once again. "Bringer?"

The gray wolf grunted in reply, lowering his head one last time to lick Rebecca's hand before scampering off into the woods.

"Hey, wait up!" Fred called after him.

Coming to a halt, Fred looked over his shoulder one last time at Rebecca where she laid upon the forest floor. Then he continued on into the woods, running after Bringer.

"Wait up!" Fred shouted.

Rebecca's back stretched a little, her ears faintly catching her friends' voices as they echoed in the distance. Grasping Fred's sweatshirt, she pulled the warm garment closer while her hand reached into one of the pockets.

"Huh?"

With a little effort, Rebecca pulled out a tiny patch depicting a grand mountain with a peak so high that clouds circled around it. Rebecca smiled while staring up at it and muttered-

"Good luck you two."


End file.
